III. Ps. 20. 7. SERM. furniture only, but "in remembering the name of the Lord God." A horse is a vain thing to save, without the power of this word. And so when a man thrives not or prospers not in his actions, it is not often for want of labour or care. Psalm the hundred and twenty-seventh and first verse tells him, "Except the Lord build the house," &c. Augustine adviseth his auditory to believe it in time, lest by woful experience they find it to be true, when as they shall have such a consumption that no meat shall do them any good, or such a dropsy that no drink shall avail them. Levit. 26. 26. The power and virtue of this word is called "the staff of bread," and it is meant of a chief staff, such a one as is set in the midst to bear up all the tent. The plaincst similitude I can use to make you understand the force thereof is this: When we go to physic for any disease, we are bidden scethe such herbs in running water, and then to drink the water; we know it is not the water which helpeth, but the decoction or infusion. So it is not the bread (considered barely in itself) that nourisheth us, but the virtue and grace of the word infused into it. We are not therefore to stick to the means like the Lu. 12. 19. glutton, but to pray for this blessing. And to this end God, in the establishing of nature, hath thereout reserved four special prerogatives to His word. 14, 15. [Mat. 14. 17, 21.] As first, with a very little of the means to go far in opera 1 Kings 17. tion, with a little oil and a little wheat He fed Elias, the poor widow, and her son, a great while. And, Matthew the fourteenth chapter and seventeenth verse, Christ made "five loaves and two fishes" serve "five thousand" persons. The heathen man thought no certain proportion was to be set down for a family, because when a heavenly hunger cometh on men they eat more at one time than at another. But whatsoever the heathen have spoken wisely, we have far more wisely uttered by the Holy Ghost in one place or other. In Psalm the seventeenth and fourteenth verse this is set down, where there is mention made of a certain "hidden treasure" wherewith men's "bellies be filled;" and Haggai, the first chapter and sixth verse, saith, "Men eat much, yet have not enough; drink much, but are not filled." This is the first prerogative. His second is, IIe takes order as well for the quality as for the quantity: coarse meats and fine are all one with Him, for the Israelites, notwithstanding their quails and manna died; and Daniel and his fellows that fed with coarse meats, "looked better than all the children that were fed upon the Dan. 1. 15. king's own diet." Thirdly, without means He worketh sometimes. There 14. 11. fore Asa had said little or nothing to the purpose if he had 2 Chron. said, "God helpeth by many or few"-if he had not put in too-" and sometimes by noue." For there was "light" before Gen. 1. 3. any sun or moon, though after it pleased God to ordain them Gen. 1. 14. as instruments. And so the earth was fertile, when as then no "rain" had fallen on the earth, nor any such ordinary Gen. 2. 5. Let Moses be on the mount and but hear God, and means. he needeth no bread. 40. The fourth is, that IIe can bring His purpose to pass even by those means whose natures tend to contrary effects, as to preserve by stones. Coloquintida, being rank poison, in 2 Kings 4. eating whereof is present death, was by the Prophet made matter of nourishment. So Christ, by those things which were fit to put out a seeing man's eyes, as dust, made a blind man Joh. 9. 6. recover his sight. And so doth He make “ light to shine out 2 Cor. 4.6. of darkness," one contrary out of another. Thus we see the devil answered. Now let us apply these things to ourselves. Christ's answer doth import two words, and so two mouths, and two breaths or spirits; and these two be as two twins. He that will be maintained by the one, must seek after the other. The first word is the same decree whereby the course of nature is established, according to Psalm the one hundred and forty-seventh, and fifteenth verse: "He sendeth forth His commandment upon the earth, and His word runneth very swiftly; He giveth snow like wool," &c. Secondly, the other is that whereof James speaketh, to Jas. 1. 18. wit, "the word of truth," wherewith "of His own will He begat us." The one proceedeth from the mouth of God's providence, creating and governing all things, "He but speaking Ps. 33. 9. the word, and it was done;" the other proceedeth out of the mouth of God's Prophets, who are as it were His mouth, Jer. 13. 19. "Thou standest before Me, as if thou wert My mouth." From the first word all things have their beginning and being; as when He sent forth His spirit or breath they were SERM. created and had their beginning, so He teacheth us that so JII. soon as "God hides His face, they are troubled. And if He takes away their breath, they die and return to dust." Ps. 104.29. Gen. 22. 2. The other Spirit, that is, the sanctifying Spirit, ministereth unto us supernatural life. Now therefore to set them together, every man is thus to think with himself: If I get my living contrary to God's word, that is, by any unlawful means, surely God's other word will not accompany such gotten goods. That is, these two words be twins: if we get not our goods by the one word, we shall want the blessing of the other word, and then we were as good cat stones; it will be but gravel in our mouths or quails. We are then to use the means according to the second word. Abraham, we see, went forth to sacrifice according to God's appointment, the word was his direction; therefore when [Gen. 22. Isaac asked, Where was the sacrifice? he might boldly answer, 7,8.] God would "provide" one; as we see even at the very pinch [Gen. 22. He did. Whereupon it came to be a proverb, that even In 14. marg.] monte Jehova providebit. The Israelites went out of Egypt by the warrant and appointment of God's word. How then? First, they had a way made them, where never was any before, through Ex. 14. 21. the Red Sea; they had bread downwards out of the clouds, [Ps. 78. whereas it useth to rise upwards out of the earth; their gar24, 25.] Deu. 8. 4. ments in "forty years" never "waxed old;" they had water whence water useth not to come; by striking the rocks "the water gushed forth." So that it is true which the Prophet Ps. 34. 9. David saith, "There is no want to them that fear God." [Ps. 78. 20.] Though God peradventure will not use the same means He did for the Israelites, yet the children of God walking after His will shall have some way of relief always. And therefore Christ would not distrust the providence of God, for He knew He was in the work and way of God. For we read that He was "led into the wilderness by the Spirit," and therefore could not lack; as indeed He did not, for the "Angels came and ministered unto Him," as it followeth in the eleventh verse of this chapter. So either the crows shall minister to our wants as they did to Elias; or our enemies, as the Egyptians did to the Israelites; or else the Angels themselves, as they did here. "33.] But to grow to a conclusion. "Let us seek the Kingdom [Mat. 6. of God, and all other things shall be ministered unto us.' And in all like temptations we may learn a good answer out of Daniel, the third chapter and seventeenth verse: "That God That we serve is able to relieve and deliver us, even from the burning fire." But, if it should not be IIis will so to do, yet we will not use unlawful means, or fall to idolatry, or turn stones into bread. 22. Prov. 20. 17. Juv. Sat. 14. 204.] In this answer, again, Christ would teach us here to be resolute, howsoever God's blessing doth not concur with our gettings, as it doth not when we get them by indirect means, contrary to God's word. To goods so gotten, God will add sorrow; for "the blessing of the Lord maketh rich, Prov. 10. and He doth add no sorrow with it." When God gives riches, He gives quietness withal; but if God give them not, we were as good be without them, whether they be gotten by oppression or "violence," or by fraud and "deceit;" for Prov.4.17. these two be the quicksilver and brimstone of the devil's 17. alchemistry. God will add sorrow to them, for though they be "pleasant at the first," and money gotten by stinking means Prov. 20. smells like other money, as an emperor said, and bread so gotten tastes like other bread, yet in the end a plain conclusion and experiment will make it manifest that it was made of stones, and had sorrow mingled or added to it. And therefore it shall be either an occasion or matter of the disease called the stone; or it shall "turn his meat in his bowels, Job 20. 14. and fill him with the gall of asps;" or as Asa's oppression by delicacy became an occasion of the dropsy or gout; or [2 Chron. else shall "the extortioner catch all that he hath, and the Ps. 109.11. stranger spoil him;" or "spend them upon physicians" or on lawyers; or else, though God suffer them to enjoy them quietly all their lifetime, and even to die by their flesh-pots, yet on their deathbed they shall find such a grudging and torment in their conscience, that they will wish that they had starved for hunger before they had begun to use any such means. Or if God in His judgment, for their greater torment, suffer them to die in their beds, without any remorse of conscience, like blocks, or like an ox dying in a ditch, at the last day they shall feel a gnashing in their teeth, and then they will know it was made of stones. 16. 12.] Mark 5. 26. SEVEN SERMONS UPON THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST IN TIE WILDERNESS. SERMON IV. SERM. MATTHEW iv. 5, 6. Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, and set Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, And said unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thy self down; for it is written, that He will give His Angels charge over Thee, and with their hands they shall lift Thee up, lest at any time Thou shouldst dash Thy foot against a stone. [Tunc assumpsit Eum diabolus in sanctam civitatem, et statuit Eum super pinnaculum Templi, Et dixit Ei, Si Filius Dei es, mitte Te deorsum. Scriptum est enim, Quia Angelis Suis mandavit de Te, et in manibus tollent Te, ne forte offendas ad lapidem pedem Tuum. Lat. Vulg.] [Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, And saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down ; for it is written, He shall give His Angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone. Eng. Trans.] THE manner is, after one hath taken a foil, his courage will fail. The Angel would have been gone, when he saw he Gen. 32.26. could not prevail over Jacob. But it is not so here with the devil; for when he saw that his first temptation would not |