GOD'S BLESSING IN BLASTING, AND HIS MERCY IN MILDEW.  
TWO SERMONS SUITABLE TO THESE times of Dearth: By JAMES ROWLANDSON B. in D. and Pastor at EAST-TYSTED in Hampshire.  ESAY 30.20. 
Though the Lord give you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet shall not thy Teachers be removed into a corner any more; but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers.  
LONDON, Printed by john Haviland for William Bladen, at the great North door of PAUL'S. 1623.   

TO THE WORTHIEST GENTLEWOMAN, AND MOST virtuous Matron, Mris. ANNE BILSON, the true widow of that famous and most learned Prelate, my L. BILSON, late Bishop of Winchester, and one of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Counsel, my sometimes most loving Patron, and thrice honoured Lord: all the graces of God's Kingdom in this world, and the glories of it in another.  
I Cannot more abhor flattery, than yourself will fly at the very shadow of it; as Moses at the sight of the Serpent. But give not back, it is no such terrible object, which here I offer to your eyes. It is but a rod, and that a gracious one, God's blessing to our Nation even in Blasting, and his mercy in Mildew. This I have somewhat overboldly adventured to cast in your way before ye were ware of it. But you know to take it up by the true end, which it to testify mine unfeigned reverence and respect, both to yourself, and to the memory of that most honourable man, that is gone before us into his Master's joy. I could not satisfy myself, if in the dedication of these my first labours of this kind, I did not charge them, in the first place to visit that Family, to which (as God's instrument) I must refer the greatest part of my worldly encouragements, or undergo the censure of the nine that returned not with thankes. Two poor mites these are, o● which neither the Lords treasury, nor yourself have any such need, but that they might well be spared; yet he that accepted the Widows, gives me hope that neither he, nor the Widow will reject mine. I speak not this in confidence of their worth (for slender they must needs be, that are spun most out of mine own meditations) but in regard of his goodness, that hath given you yours, and by his merciful acceptation of our smallest endeavours done in truth, teacheth us not to despise one onothers services, or offices of love. That Ocean of his never exhausted bounty, likes it well, that to his glory we should refund whatsoever good we have received by his grace, be it less or more. The smallest drops of such rain when they fall into that sea, find no less welcome, than the deepliest charged rivers. You desire (I know) to imitate the heavenly Father, of whom we must all be followers, if we will be approved children; and even in this. Therefore I fear not to present you with this small paper-retribution. It is all and the first gift that ever I tendered, either to yourself or to any other: a poor one (God wots) yet a demonstration of my thankfulness. Gold and Silver I had none, or had I offered for your favours and my Lords, either before or after that I felt them, I am persuaded that the repulse would have been shameful, 
Acts 8.20.  and that too with S. Peter's detestation. Now also even this my testimony of your goodness towards me, is more (as little as it is) than you expected, than you desired: so abundantly do you content yourself in the sole secrecy of doing well. And yet me thinks, it is pity that virtue should be so modest as to love obscurity, unwilling to have itself known, when vice is grown so impudent, as not to fear the light. If painted visages (visards rather) dare bazard the censure of a public view, should native beauty blush to show its face? Yet your retiredness is commendable, but your contentedness with it, much more: in that having lived sometimes in the open eye of the world so worthily, you can now thus cheerfully devote yourself (as it were) to a more private, not less pious course of life: 
Heb. 13 4. 1 Tim. 5.3.  your former condition was honourable amongst all men; and none (save they that either know not the Apostles precept, or yourself) but will say that your present is as much to be honoured. The ancient of days give you fullness of many, and happy years, with the abundance of his blessings, that you may continue to be (as you are) a gracious precedent of piety and gravity to your sex; a long lived mother in Israel; the great comfort of your virtuous children; of whom you may say more truly than Cornelia of her Gracchis, Haec sunt ornamenta mea, These are my jewels, these my habiliments: Such be they long to your comfort, still to God's glory, whose unerring spirit of truth, conduct you and them, with us all, through this wilderness of sin, to our promised Canaan. And so I rest,  
Your Servant in Christ Jesus, JAMES ROWLANDSON.   

GOD'S BLESSING IN BLASTING, AND his mercy in Mildew. THE FIRST SERMON.  HAGGAI 2.17. I smote you with blasting, and with mildew, and with hail, in all the labours of your bands; yet ye turned not to me, saith the LORD. 
TWice I find this Text in Scripture, and in the same words almost; here and in the Prophet Amos, chap. 4. vers. 9 
Amos 4.9.  Here they mention a correction upon the jews after their return from Captivity; there, a judgement upon the revolted Israelites, or the ten Tribes. Here the jews were thus afflicted for not building God's house; there the Israelites for schismatically leaving the worship of God house.  
Hence thus infer by the way, if you please: It can be no less fault to abandon the Church than not to build it: Nor deserves it a less● affliction, not to repair to the Temple, than not to repair it. Understand it thus: He that obstinately refuseth to come to the Church (be he a recusant Papist, or Schismatic) offends no less, if not more, than the churl or miser that holds his hand from contributing to it when there is need. For the buildings and materials of the Temple are but the body of it, but the soul of the Temple is God's service in i●. And surely were not the covetous man an Idolater, as well as the Recusant, I should less● blame him for shutting up his purse, than other● for cutting off their persons, from the Temple. But it is hard to say whether is the worse; 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Both so bad, that there is no great choice.  
Yet the jews here in my text, though beaten with the same rods of Blasting and Mildew, wherewith the Israelites were smitten in Amos, sinned not after the like manner. The Temple was yet standing, when Amos prophesied to the Israelites: which happened in the days of jeroboam the latter, 
Amos 1.1.  the son of joash the thirteenth King of Israel, two hundred forty six years before the desolation of it by the Assyrians, or thereabout. So the Israelites forsook not the Temple for the ruins of it, but for the rent which jeroboam the son of Nebat had made from the house of David; from which time they were turned Idolaters, and turned the glory of God into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay. Access was not denied them, either to David's throne for justice, or to the Temple for devotion; but because they had broken from the house of David, 
Deut. 12.6. john 4.20.  they would break from God's house too. And whereas the Lord had commanded them for public worship to resort to the Temple, they left the place which he had chosen, and following their master Pilot, jeroboam, (whose policy steered all their piety towards the landing of himself at a kingdom) carried all their sacrifices to Dan and Bethel; and so became more brutish in their service, than the Idoll-calues which they served. But for the jews now returned from captivity, let them be thus fare excused; If they frequented not the Temple, they could not, it being not yet re-edified: If they builded it not again, they had this to say ●or themselves, that they had begun to do ●t, but were restrained by the letters of Artaxerxes, procured by the malicious suggestion, & ●t the instigation of their bad neighbours; and so were forced to desist from the work till the second year of Darius' king of Persia, 
Ezra 4.24.  Ezra. 4. vers. 24. Yet though thus we might plead for them, or they for themselves, all this will not prove them blameless: Excuse them it may à tanto, non à toto; It is too narrow a cloak to cover all their nakedness, for herein it leaves them bare, and open to God's smitings: for being once enjoined this task by God himself, and having put their hands unto it, they should not have given it over for any dread of man. Now, that they were set about this work by the Lord himself, 
Ezra 1.5.  is plain, Ezra. 1.5. Where it is said, that he raised up their spirits to build the Temple: to wit, he stirred up theirs, by his spirit, the motion whereof they should have held as a mandat, or equivalent to an express command. Whence these conclusions result, which we will but a little more than mention.  
1. That the sacred suggestions of God's spirit in stirring up our spirits to do his will, would be harkened unto, and obeyed with constancy. For being divine dictates, though secretly inspired, they have an equipollency or equal weight with the plainest precepts. But how these are distinguishable from diabolical delusions, or concupiscential fantasies of men, I have showed more largely at another time: only now receive this short direction; Whatsoever motion would transport thee beyond thy calling, or lift up thy thoughts above the pitch and measure of thy gifts, observe it with a jealous eye: further if it be an incentive unto evil, it is not a coal from the altar, but some wild fire cast into thine heart, by Satan that old boutefeau. And if it speak not according to the Law and the Testimony, there is deceit or vanity, falsehood or lightness, but no light, 
Esay 8.20.  no weight of truth in it  
Again from the former discourse might arise another inference, as thus: That not even the terrors and counter-commands of the greatest, should so interrupt us in works enjoined by God, as to make us to desist from them. For, Whether it be right in the sight of God, to obey men rather than God, judge ye, Acts 4.19.  
But the main point, issuing from the reference of this text as of a parallel to that in Amos mentioned before, might be this: That like afflictions in this world oftentimes befall the good and the bad; yea that lesser offenders are sometimes chastened as more grievous sinners, and with the same rods: God's people corrected as foreigners, true worshippers as hated idolaters; sincere professors as back-sliding revolters; juda here, as Israel in Amos there; and it may be even now the true and cheerful payer of his tithes to God, as the fraudulent and sacrilegious man, and both with Blasting and Mildew.  
This doctrine is a milk of God's word to nourish us with comfort in all our troubles, & suck it we may from the two breasts of the Scriptures, the Old and New Testament: though wicked men by wresting it wring out blood, concluding thence as those  persons in Malachi, and saying, 
Malac. 3.14.  It is in vain then to serve God, and what profit is it to keep his commandments? But we have I trust better learned Christ, than to esteem gain to be godliness, 
1 Tim. 6.6.  which of itself is the greatest profit; and we have better learned his Cross, than to confound oil with the lees, though both be pressed out with the same weight, and tumbled up and down in the same barrel; than not to put a difference (I mean) between the religious and the profane, because both are under the same pressure. Wheat is wheat, and chaff is but chaff, though both be beaten out with the same flail. Stay we but a little God's leisure, till at his great coming he purge his floor, 
Mal. 3.18.  and we shall discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. 
Psal. 58. vlt.  For verily there is a reward for the righteous, doubtless there is a God that judgeth the earth.  
But now having thus compared this Text with that in Amos, let us consider it in itself, as it offereth these two things to our meditation: First, God's mercy in correcting this people, I smote you with blasting, and mildew, and hail, in all the works of your hands. Then, their obstinacy in not repenting, Yet ye have not turned unto me, saith the Lord. I call this correction a work of mercy; for besides that all his chastenings are but hastening of his people to repentance, and that he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth; first, 
Heb. 12.6.  here I see the rod in his own hand; and it was David's choice ye know, 
2 Sam 24.14.  Let us now fall into the hands of the Lord, (for his mercies are great) and let us not fall into the hand of man. If I must be corrected, let my father himself, and not his vassal chasten me: his hand will not be too heavy on me, whose heart cannot but be heavy for me. In all my troubles the Lord himself is troubled; 
Esay 63.9.  Atque dolet quoties cogitur esse ferox. How should it be otherwise? 
Ecclus. 2.18.  for as his majesty, such is his mercy; both are infinite, and everlasting. This I in my Text then hath mercy in it; and the next word though it speak of smiting, yet but of smiting. It is the Lords mercy, that when we are smitten of him, 
Lam. 3.22.  we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not; I smote you. You: and it was but the earth which he smote, as parent's stamp upon the ground to fright their wayward children You: not their persons, but the fruits and profits of their fields and vineyards. You: not the men by destroying them, but their corn, and wine, and oil, that by diminishing these things, they might have recourse unto their heavenly Father, and seek their meat at God. So mothers deal with their little wantoness, by taking the bread from them which they tread under foot: so nurses with their babes, that first show the breast, and then put it up again, to make them search the bosom, and cry for that food which formerly they abused. 
Esa. 32.12.  He shown them the breasts of the earth, that should have nourished them, fields standing thick with corn, olives laden with their berries, and vines clogged with their grapes, and did but show them, for he smote them with blasting, and mildew, and hail. Nor was it want of mercy, by want to teach them the true worth and sober use of these things. Nay he might have smitten them with the sword of the wicked, whose mercies are cruelty; he might have trodden their carcases as dung on the earth; or sparing their lives, he might have seized on their lands and vineyards, with fire from heaven, or floods of water, (elements that have no mercy) which might have made a clean riddance of all their food; but it was only with blasting, and mildew, 
Pro. 28.3.  and hail, which are wont but to diminish, not utterly to perish the good things of the land. Further he might have smitten them in the pleasure of their eyes, and the fruits of their loins, 
Ezek. 24.16.  I mean in their wives and children; Yet it was but in the works of their hands, in their fields which they had sown, in their Vineyards and Orchards which they had planted, and the like. So whether we consider, First the Author, Secondly the Act, Thirdly the Object, Fourthly the Instruments, or Fiftly, the manner of this correction, there is mercy in all. Mercy in the Author (I) a compassionate father. Mercy in the Act (I smote) not, I consumed, Mercy in the Object (You) and not immediately you, but yours, only your corn, and wine, and oil, etc. Mercy in the Instruments or rods (With Blasting, and Mildew, and Hail,) not with sword, or flood, or fire. Lastly, Mercy in the manner (in the labours of your hands) not in the friends of their bosoms, or the fruits of their loins, but only in the fruits of their lands, and orchards, and gardens, which their hands had dressed and planted. So this part of my Text speaks of compassion and correction, like David's Psalm, that sings of Mercy and judgement, 
Psal 101.1.  or of a merciful chastisement; of rods steeped not in brine, but in the oil of love. Yet (alas for their hardness) all this oil softened not, nor could these rods beat them home to him that smote them, or bring them to a serious consideration of the cause why they were thus afflicted: Yet ye returned not unto me, saith the Lord.  
So then we have a general draught of my Text; wherein we see all the parts and lineaments of it. Now mark we what matter of further observation these in their order will afford.  
And first for the Author, I smote you, 
1. Author.  saith the Lord. Blasting, and Mildew, and Hail, were but mine instruments, I was the mover, I strooke you with these. The conclusion naturally issuing hence is this:  
Whatsoever be the rods wherewith at any time we are chastened, for certain the hand is Gods that correcteth us. Be it dearth, 
Levit. 26.26.  it is he that breaks the staff of bread: or drought, 
Deut. 11.17.  it is he that shuts the heavens: or deluge, 
Gen. 7.11.  it is he that breaks up all the fountains of the deep, and sets open the cataracts or windows of heaven. Be it fire, it is he that raines it: or stormy wind, it is he that sends it. 
Gen. 19.24. jona. 1.4. Psalm 68.8.  Be it earthquake, it is his presence that moves it: or disastrous aspects of stars and planets, it is he that holds them all in his hands, 
job 38.31.  that calls them by their names, that restraineth the sweet influences of the Pleyades, and looseth the bands of Orion. 
Psal. 91.5.  Be it plague or pestilence, they are his arrows; or war, 
Esay 9.21.  it is his arm; or enemies, they are his armies; 
Esay 9.11.  for he is the Lord of Hosts, and the shields of the world are his. 
Psal. 47.9.  Briefly, there is no public calamity inflicted on man, or other creatures, of which we may not say as the Prophet of the Assyrian tyrant, 
Esay 10.5.  that it is the rod of God's anger; though therewith he strike his children in love: and a rod (ye know) cannot smite of itself, unless there be an hand to use it. Nor may all the hands in the world move one of these rods, if God stretch not out his arm to stir them. And as it is the Lord that sends corrections in all common troubles, so is there no private affliction that betideth any without his providence, or without his hand, that smiteth by it. Therefore David acknowledged thus in his sickness; 
Psalm 32.4.  Thine hand is heavy upon me: 
Psalm 38.3.  And again, There is no health in my flesh because of thy displeasure. 
Esay 38.2.  Therefore Ezekiah in his disease had recourse to God by prayer: and holy job bereft of all worldly comforts, thus possessed his soul by patience: 
job 1.  The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord. He complains not of the violence of the Shabeans, that driven away his oxen, nor of the injustice of the Chaldeans, that stole away his Camels, or of the cruelty of both, that slew his servants: Nor doth he either execrate the fury of the fire, that burned up his sheep and shepherds; or curse the boisterousness of the wind, that blew down the house, and there at once both killed and buried all his children: But thus he turned to him that smote him; The Lord hath given, the Lord hath taken away, etc. The Prophet jonas, though a very passionate man, (as appeareth by the conclusion of his prophecy) yet patiently took his deserved affliction. And whereas the hands of the Mariners had heaved him over shipboard, he says it was the Lord that did cast him into the bottom in the midst of the sea. 
jona. 2.3.  Reviling Shimei that threw stones at David, with bitter obloquys (harder to be endured than stones themselves) was yet himself but as a stone thrown at David by God, and therefore the holy man snarled not at that stone, but heeded the hand that cast it; 
2 Sam. 16.10.  he curseth, saith he, because the Lord hath bidden him curse David: Who then dare say, wherefore hast thou done so.  
How then may not this justly reprove impatient spirits that spend themselves in fretting at the means, or men by which the Lord doth chasten them: like cursed Mastiffs that break their teeth in gnawing those iron chains wherewith their masters tie them, and in biting the staff wherewith he beats them. Do but hear one complain of his incurable disease contracted (it may be) or inflicted upon him for his intemperancy; and yet though (according to the French proverb) he dig up his own grave with his teeth, he will both defame the noble Art of Physic, and blame the Physician which should be honoured; not his own bad diet, not his riot that caused the hand of God to smite him. Do but observe another whom the heavy hand of oppression (as he saith) hath brought low, and hear how he breaks forth into dismal cursings, and deepest execrations, fetched from the nethermost pit; as if he would let lose the Prince of darkness, and all infernal powers against those that wrong him: yet it may be, by idleness and unfaithfulness in his calling, he hath suffered his estate to come to ruin, or hath let out his substance by prodigality, or whoredom: notwithstanding all his talk is against the iniquity of men, or the hardness of the times: not willing in the mean time either to remember his own sins or what the Scripture hath said, 
1 Sam. 2.7.  The Lord maketh poor.  
At this time the Lord hath smitten us in many parts of the land with Blasting and Mildew. The fullness of our sins, and the empty ears of corn, do fearfully prognosticate (o let my fear prove false) a hungry year.  
But if when one shall come to a mow or an heap of twenty measures, he shall happen to find but ten, let not the rich then complain of Blasting, or Mildew; nor let the poor cry out upon cormorants, but let us all remember what God says here in our Prophet, I smote you; the rich not undeservedly, and the poor as worthily; the rich for repining at the former price, and the poor for despising the former plenty.  
To shut up this point: Seeing it is our heavenly Father that striketh, whatsoever be his scourge, with him let us make our peace, to him our repair. If to the creatures we cry for comfort, all may answer us, as the King of Israel to the distressed woman in a time of famine; 
2 Kings 6.27.  Seeing the Lord doth not secure you, how shall we help you with the barn or with the winepress? 
2 Chro. 16.12.  If in our diseases with Asa we seek first to the Physician, 
2 Kings 1.2.  or go at all to the god of Ekron with Ahaziah, how justly may the Lord make our maladies to be mortal, as were theirs? If in other distresses with Saul we have recourse to the Witch at Endor, 
1 Sam. 28 11.  to Conjurers, or Wise men (falsely so called) we deserve with him to be deprived both of life and grace, for seeking so to recover losses. As therefore David enquired of the woman of Tekoah, 
2 Sam. 14.19.  if the hand of joab was not with her in that close plea, and artificial atonement which she made for Absalon; in all our troubles let us inquire if there be not the hand of God in them; and searching we shall find it is so: Which when we have found, let us with patience resign up ourselves into his hands, 
2 Sam. 3.18.  saying (as old Eli) It is the Lord, let him do what seemeth him good. For whatsoever be the rod, 
Micah 6.9.  we have heard now who appointeth it; I smote you, saith the Lord.  

2. The Act.  I smote] Non nisi coactus percutit; He smites not till sinners urge him: and when he is compelled, he doth but smite. Yet if he should but smite us according to his strength, who could abide it, or endure his strokes? He considers our weakness, and the matter whereof we are made; else we being but as stubble, and he as a consuming fire, how could we at all stand before him, 
Psalm 141.5.  and not finally perish? Therefore he smites us in mercy, and not in fury. As a tender hearted Surgeon being to lance his child, softly handleth the sore (saith Gregory) before he strikes, and then cutteth and weepeth, and weepeth and cutteth again, Nec parcit ut parcat, nec miseretur ut magis misereatur, as S. Jerome speaketh, (for otherwise sparing would be spilling:) so deals this great Physician of our souls; he smites but to heal us, and never strikes us but with compassion, mixing entreaties with his threatenings, O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee? 
Hos. 6.4.  O judah how shall I entreat thee? and ever mingling tears with his strokes which he must give us, 
Luke 19.41.  as he wept over jerusalem, which Titus that scourge of the jews, was afterwards to whip and weep for. The latter Rabbins tell us a story, or a fiction rather (and you will not believe it if I tell you, nor will I tell it to that end) that God hath a secret retiring place, to which at certain times, he useth to withdraw himself every day, where bewailing the desolation of Israel, and the miserable dispersion of the jews with many tears, he doth beshrew himself that in his anger he subverted the Temple and holy city. This dotage of theirs (if you take it in the literal sense as they seem to do) is little better than a blasphemy. But understand it spiritually, and the meaning may be that of the Prophet jeremy, 
jer. 8.21.  I am sore vexed for the hurt of the daughter of my people: or that of Esay, 
Esay 54.8.  For a moment in mine anger I hid my face from thee: or that in the Prophet jonas, 
jona. 3.10.  The Lord repent him of the evil that he had said. Which must not be so understood as if God were subject to repentance or to passions; but because he, who is immutability in the highest degree, doth speak with those that are mutable after the manner of them with whom he speaketh, saith Gregory. And therefore lift up that gross relation of the Rabbins from an earthly to an heavenly acception; and it is true, that God takes so little pleasure in punishing of his people, that (were it possible for the thrice sacred and all place filling Deity, to immure itself into a melancholic cell, and there to be dissolved into tears) he would ever weep and grieve for them. As than David speaketh of a good man, 
Psalm 141.5.  let us say of God, O let the righteous, my righteous and merciful father, smite me, for that is a benefit: If we must be chastened, happy are we that we smart by his smitings: Let him reprove us and it shall be a precious oil: For this we may be sure of, that when his correction comes, Nec venit sine merito quia Deus est justus, nec erit sine commodo quia Deus est bonus; It neither comes without our merit that have deserved it, for God is just, nor shall it be but to our profit, because he is good and gracious.  
Further in this act of their correction he speaks, you see, of that which was past and done; I smote] which again implieth another note of God's mercy: for in that he saith, I smote, he says in effect, and by consequent, that for the present he had laid aside his rod, and now had ceased from smiting, though as yet they had neglected to build again the Temple, for which neglect he had thus corrected them. Surely should not he give over punishing, till we give over altogether sinning, he should never make an end till there were an end of us; for we are but as lead to the fire of trouble: should he never cease from refining of us in that fire, till all our dross were purged, he might consume our very substance, and leave us nothing. 
2 Sam. 14.14.  Yet he hath devised a means not to cast out his banished: and hath promised to purify and refine us as gold and silver, 
Malach. 3.3. Esay 1.25.  to burn out all our dross, and to take away all our tin, but it must be then (as the Prophets meant it) by another fire than affliction, even the power of God's word, from the virtue of his spirit, of which the Baptist thus; 
Matth. 3.11.  He shall baptised you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Therefore the Lord to magnify his powerful mercy having smitten this people (I smote you, saith he) comes to try as it were another course with them: and sends them a Prophet who by three weeks preaching and a little more, 
Hag. 1.1.  (for the word came to Haggai the first day of the sixth month, 
Id. 2. cap. 1.  and the twenty fourth day of the same month they began to build) obtained that of them which forty years correction could not extort. 
Hag. 1.15.  So powerful is the word of God: so true that which he saith by his Prophets, 
Esay 55.11.  The word which goeth out of my mouth shall not return unto me void, it shall accomplish that which I will, and prosper in the thing to which I send it. And thus as the Lord will not be ever chiding, so not always correcting; and oftentimes he doth that by the word of his mouth, which many stripes could not effect: For he is not as Moses, which could do no great work without the rod in his hand; but laying aside his scourges he doth eftsoons by the powerful operation of his holy spirit, work the conversion of his people: for so he speaks in Hosea, 
Hosea 2.14.  Behold I will allure them and speak friendly unto them; he had said before that he would take away from them his corn in the time thereof, and his wine in the season thereof, that he would recover from them the wool, 
Verse 9  and the flax, which he had lent to cover their shame; that he would destroy their vines and figtrees; 
Verse 12.  that he would make them as a forest, and that the wild beasts should eat them, etc. But then remembering his mercy, he makes this promise; Behold I will allure, behold I will speak friendly. O the never too much admired goodness of the Lord, that leaves no means unattempted to procure our good! As here when smiting could not prevail, he sends a Prophet to persuade; who yet must tell them that the Lord had smitten them. That they may remember their affliction wherewith the Lord hath chastened them and their fathers for the space now of forty years, they must hear of it, though it be past and done.  
And this in the next place importeth our duty, as before it implied a note of God's mercy. Conceive it thus: When troubles have done with us, we must not so have done with them: former afflictions, though past and gone, would yet not be forgotten: therefore the Lord here puts them in mind what he hath done, what they and their fathers have suffered; I smote you. And this very thing he wisheth them in this chapter, once and again, and the third time, to consider of. We like it well that our children should not forget when and for what we have corrected them: but him that remembers the rod no longer than he smarts by it, we hold a careless son. It is an argument of a disposition almost incorrigible, so to despise God's smitings, as to be no longer mindful than we are sensible of them, or no longer to sorrow for sin than we suffer for it. Yet all of us are too too like joab, 
2 Sam. 14.31.  that would not go to Absalon till he had set his corn on fire: and I wish a many of us were not worse; for the Lord hath sent a blasting or (as the word here signifies) a burning wind into our fields, and yet how few (as it may be justly feared) have recourse to God that smites them? Though that neither be sufficient, I mean only to visit him in our troubles, then and never else to pour out a prayer but when his chastening is upon us. 
Esa. 26.16.  We hold him scarce a friend that never comes to see us but when some exigency drives him; and it is but forced homage which we do to our heavenly King, when by prayer and repentance we repair not to him, unless he send a Pursuivant of affliction for us. Our greatest motives to turn unto him should be his mercies; but if we will not stir but when the spur is in our sides, there is but a little good metal in us. If we be generous Christians, such as so run that we may obtain, not miseries only present, but their very memory will hasten us. As then it is good for us to have been in trouble, so ever to remember it. And here in few words let me heap up many reasons.  
First, it is an excellent means to keep the heart lowly, still to have in mind what we or ours have been, or have suffered. He that of a Potter's son became afterwards a Sicilian Prince, is renowned for it, that he would be served at his Table partly in earthen vessels, to remember him daily of his former mean condition or parentage; and partly in vessels of gold and silver, that he might not forget himself to be a King. Surely as our advancement to the state of grace should put us in mind to walk worthy of our calling, so the remembrance of our creation and mould of our corruption also and former crosses for them should quell our swelling, and keep us lowly. When the Prophet would take down the pride and boasting of Ephraim, he puts them in remembrance of the afflictions of their father from whom they were descended: 
Hosea 12.12.  jaakob (saith he) fled into the country of Aram, and Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he kept sheep. As if he had said; If you boast of your riches and nobility, you seem to reproach your father, who was a poor, but an honest fugitive, and a servant. And thus the greatest houses, would they but respect the rock from which they were digged out, may find beggary or poverty in their first foundations; for there is no nobility whose base on which it stood, was not sometimes baseness, and which God cannot again resolve into its former principles of meanness and obscurity.  
Again, the memory of former troubles keeps the mind watchful, and makes a man more wary, for what hath been may be again, and there is nothing new under the Sun. 
Eccles. 1.9.  He that hath once surfeited by feeding on some dish, doth usually for ever after loathe it: but if he will to it again, in his sickness let him blame himself. Improbè Neptunum accusat, qui iterum naufragium facit; He that will needs to the sea, having once made shipwreck, if he fall foul the second time, may thank himself. If then by thy former enormities thou hast sometimes gotten a weakness to thy body, or a wound to thy conscience, a blot to thy name, or a disparagement to thy calling; if for thine iniquities thou hast been corrected in thy goods or friends, in thine olive or her branches, thy wife or children, or howsoever else, forget not these former crosses, the remembrances whereof may be sovereign preservatives against future sins.  
Thirdly, as conquests in former battles add hope and confirmation to valour in succeeding wars, so the memory of former difficulties which by grace we have once overcome, gives strength to faith, and hope to patience, and comfort by them both, when we shall be brought to combat with new assaults. So the Lion and the Bear which David could remember he had slain, 
1 Sam. 17.35, 36.  encouraged him to grapple with the Giant.  
Fourthly, to be much and frequent in this meditation, sets a greater price upon God's blessings while we have them, the worth whereof we better understand by calling to mind our former wants of them. And therefore Moses more seriously to affect the people with a true sense of their liberty and deliverance, so often puts them in mind of the Egyptian bondage.  
Fiftly, it teacheth compassion towards others in the like afflictions. If there be aught (I say not of grace, but) of good nature in us, we cannot but commiserate others in their troubles, when we call to memory our own. Thus to move the Israelites to tender heartedness towards strangers and servants, that man of God tells them again, 
Deut. 16.12.  that they were servants in the land of Egypt. And should not this argument prevail with Christian masters as much, if not more than with jews; seeing Christ of Satan's vassals hath made them free denizens above?  
Briefly it stirs up the heart to continual thankfulness, when together with the remembrance of our former troubles, we cannot but be mindful of God's mercies that either ceased or eased, or so seasoned those troubles, that with patience we bore them, and that the nets being broken, our souls at length escaped and were set free. The Church stories report, that the woman cured by our Saviour of her issue of blood, 
Luke 8.44.  only by touching the hem of his garment, returning to her house at Philippi, caused two Statues to be set before her doors, one resembling herself an humble suppliant on her knees with her hands lifted up; another resembling our Saviour, stretching forth his hands unto her: at the feet of which picture (covered as it were with a robe) there did grow up so high as the hem of it, an herb called Panace, which that age (as Pliny also more than two hundred years before Eusebius) seemed to have held sovereign against all diseases. These trophies which she had set up in the honour of Christ, were to be seen (saith the same Eusebius) in his time, that is, at least three hundred years after Christ. Well, to what purpose serves this history? Thus: All are not able with this woman to erect before our houses in the honour of our great Physician, such monuments as may remember us of his mercy so often as we go in or out by our doors: but all may and should daily set up before the eyes of their mind a twofold Memento; one of their former calamities which they have felt, by suffering; another of God's favours which they have proved by his delivering. Which would we do, hence would grow a wonderful measure of thankfulness, a grace most acceptable to God for former blessings, and of a catholic medicinal virtue against all times of future evils: for not Crucifixes worn in our bosoms or about us, but former crosses together with God's ancient mercies borne in faithful memory, are powerful amulets to save us from the evil of ensuing dangers. If then the Lord hath smitten us, know it is our duty with Ephraim to smite ourselves upon the thigh, and to remember the corrections of old. 
jer. 31.19.  Can the Iron be pliable and fashionable to the mind of the Smith after a few strokes, nor could he but willingly spare his arms, nor should it need more often heating or beating afterwards. Would our stiffness relent with the first cross, and be conformable to God that frames us to his will, we should save God a labour, and ourselves a second trouble. I smote you (saith he) remember it, that I may smite you no more.  
And thus fare touching the Author and the Act of this correction: now see the Object; You.  
I smote you] not their persons (as I said before) but their fields and vineyards, or in these, their corn and grapes, and the like. Yet in that he blessed not these, it was as if he had blasted them. For though such things be not our life, yet they are our livelihood; though not the flame, yet the oil that feeds it. And therefore to affect them more feelingly with these afflictions, he tells them, that whiles but these things were strucken, themselves were smitten; I smote you.  
Take out this lesson then: We should be sensible of the calamities that befall the creatures, for we are crossed if they be cursed for our sakes. If the Lord at this time, partly by Blasting and Mildew, partly by unseasonable weather, have weakened our staff of bread; weakened, I say; (for blessed be his mercy that he hath not yet altogether broken it) judge we ourselves, 
Hab. 3.8.  to be deservedly smitten: For, Behold we have sinned, 
2 Sam. 24.  we have done wickedly, but the corn and other fruits of the earth, what have they done? Nay, the profane gluttony of the times, that men feed themselves without fear; The loathsome drunkenness of the times, that men drink by measures, and yet without measure; The wantonness of the times, that men like fed horses neigh after unlawful lusts, are sins that have made the whole body of our nation foul and very filthy. No marvel then if to purge such foulness, such filthiness, God do even now threaten us with a famine and cleanness of teeth. The father of Physicians tells us, that a foul body the more it is nourished, the more it is perished: and that a plethorique body would require a present evacuation. And is it not in spiritual matters as in corporal things? We are all God's patients, and he our great Physician. Now the body of our sins (which the Apostle calleth a body of death) is grown so full, so foul, 
Rom. 7.24.  that without purging there can be no hope of the life of grace. It therefore it shall please him either to take away his corn or the virtue of it, and to send leanness into our souls (as David phraseth the worst of famines, 
Psalm. 106.15.  when men eat and are not satisfied) he doth it in wisdom to procure cleanness of soul. For certain if our overgrown sins did not require a slender diet, we should not need to fear a dearth, 
Reu. 6.  that Black horse, as the Scripture calls it, after which two usually followeth the pale horse whose rider is death. But now that I am about for this time to conclude my labour, and that I would not that it should set in so black a cloud as is a threatening, hear I pray you the wholesome words of instruction; Let us cease to do evil, and learn to do well, and he will nourish us, for he hath promised to feed such, even in the time of dearth. Surely, if we will hear and obey, 
Esay 1.  we shall eat the good things of the land; our store shall be plenteous, and our portion fat: 
joel. 2.25.  he will render unto us the years which the Grasshopper hath eaten: I mean, he will turn Blasting into a blessing, Mildew and Hail, into a gracious rain upon his inheritance, and the fields shall stand so thick with corn, that they shall laugh and sing.  
But in the mean time, let us more desire that precious food of our souls, the word of God which endureth for ever, than the things of this life which must certainly perish. And thus far touching, first, the Author: secondly, the Act; thirdly the Object of this correction; in these words, I smote you. The remnant you must expect at another time. Till then and ever the Lord give a blessing to that which hath been said.   

THE SECOND SERMON.  HAGGAI 2.17. 
I smote you with Blasting, and with Mildew, and with Hail, in all the labours of your hands: Yet ye turned not to me, saith the Lord.  
MY Text here parted itself into two streams, like that river Himera in Sicily (as it is reported) the one somewhat salt, rather well seasoned, which I called Gods merciful correction of this people, I smote you with Blasting, and Mildew, and Hail, in all the labours of your hands: the other fresh and unsavoury, having no salt tears of true repentance in it; Yet ye turned not unto me, saith the Lord. In the former I noted, first, the Author, (I) secondly, the Act, (smote) thirdly, the Object, (You) (points already handled with their several observations) fourthly, the rods or instruments with which he smote them, Blasting, Mildew, Hail; fifthly, the manner of this correction, or the things wherein he smote them, In all the labours of your hands: which two last particulars (the remanents of the first part) must now be set before you, and after that I shall present you with the second general, and all at this time, as God shall give ability.  

4. The rods.  With Blasting, and with Mildew, and with Hail] These are the rods wherewith the Lord smote them, which though they seem to be bound up in one bundle, and to make but one clause in my text, are yet several corrections and distinguishable in themselves. The last of them, which is Hail, none but knows both that it is a different thing from the other two, and how it hurteth the fruits of the earth, sometimes in the bud, sometimes in the blossom, sometimes interrupting their growth, sometimes dashing both them and our hopes when they are come to their ripeness & maturity. But for the two former, neither is their difference so plain, nor their operation in annoying the profits of the ground so apparent to sense, till they have done the hurt. And yet if we mark it well, the Scripture doth distinguish them both here and wheresoever else they are mentioned, though generally it bring them in thus yoked together, 
Deut. 28.22. 1 Kings 8.37.  Blasting and Mildew; for first if the original here be consulted, the words run thus, With Blasting, 
Amos 4.9. Hag. 2.17.  and with Mildew, and with Hail; not thus, with Blasting or Mildew. Secondly, the Scripture never speaks of these two, but it doth express them by words that cannot be confounded, terms I mean so different in signification that they cannot be wrought to note the same thing; for that which we call Blasting, the Hebrew nameth Shidaphon; which some translate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, that is, a corruption of, or by the wind; the Septuagint 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, a combustion or adustion: others uredinem; others ventum urentem, a burning wind; others ventum orientalem, a scorching East wind. And that which we call Mildew, the Hebrew termeth jerakon, which comes of the root jarak that signifies to spit, as if Mildew were Saliva siderum, saith one, an excrementitious humour, which the stars spit down upon the fruits of the earth, and which makes them to become abortive, as Pliny speaketh. And therefore though he seem to confound these two Blasting & Mildew, yet the Maker of Nature, God himself, who knew more than Pliny a searcher of it, hath in his never-deceiving word (as it seems to me) put a plain difference between these two. Which Vatablus observing, sets this note upon my text, Haec sunt duo vitia segetum, quorum unum nimia siccitate & aestu provenit, alterum nimia humiditate: These are two calamities incident to corn, whereof the one proceedeth of too much drought, the other of too much moisture. And here I do not find any Expositor to speak so fully of this point, as my text seems to require, and I could wish; and therefore might I but a little with your patience speak as a Philosopher in differencing these two (I mean as a Philosopher no ways repugning the sacred truth of Divinity) I should think Blasting, to be referred to an hurtful wind; and Mildew, to an unkindly moisture. And first for Blasting, the very word implies a wind: and wind of itself is by nature hot and dry, as is the exhalation which is the matter of it. But as the son of Syrach speaks of spirits, 
Ecclus. 39.28.  may I say, There be winds which are created for vengeance: so there are hurtful winds, as there are hurtful spirits, and blasting I take to be the effect of such. This once, Philosophy and our own experience teacheth, that wind is of a piercing nature by reason of the subtleness of it, which openeth and entereth the pores or secret passages, in all bodies penetrable. So that whether it be joined with frost, it lets in the cold into tender blossoms of trees, and into other fruits of the earth in their Milk or infancy, and so kills them in the Womb, as it were, and causeth the earth or trees to miscarry their fruits by untimely blighting: or whether it be accompanied with some extraordinary heat of the Sun, especially in the morning, after cold and frosty nights; it parcheth and drieth more vehemently. For as wind and heat by nature, so frost is also a drier by a certain antiperistasis, (as they call it) when one quality encompassed with another that is contrary, is intended or made more vehement; like greatest spirits that never express more valour, than when they are most narrowed and enclosed in the greatest straits. Now as all winds are of themselves hot and dry, so the eastwind especially, and therefore in the Scripture we find, that to dry up fountains, 
Hos. 13.15.  and to dry up the fruits of the ground, 
Ezek. 19.12.  is ascribed to the Eastern wind. Yea let the dream of Pharaoh confirm what I say: 
Gen. 41.6.  for the seven thin ears of corn there mentioned, are said to be burned or blasted, and that with an Eastlie wind. So than it is the wind that doth blast, especially the East wind in those places; yet not every East wind, but only such as by a fainty or sultry blowing openeth the pores, and provoketh sweat; as that which caused jonas to faint, 
jona. 4.8.  and which junius and Tremellius do translate Eurum silentem, a calm East wind, to distinguish it from the common ruffling East wind that breaks the ships of Tharshish. 
Psalm 48.7.  This I take to be blasting. That there is a blighting sometimes in thunder by lightning I grant: but that which the Scripture speaks of here, and in other places, is usually by a fervent (not a boisterous) but a burning East wind, as sundry Translators give it. Besides, those hot exhalations which cause thunder and lightning, are also the matter of the wind, as natural Philosophy teacheth. Now for Mildew, whether it be so called because it is a mild-dew, or a milb-tewe (as some think) of the Germane word milben, that signifies a worm or moth that consumeth garments, because it is as a moth or consumption to some fruits of the earth, and in some breedeth a kind of worm that eats them; or whether it be so termed, because it is a mal-dew, that is, an hurtful dew, or because it is a mildew, that is, a honey dew which doth this harm, is not much material to know, nor can I determine. But either we may conceive it to be a rotten dew, (as Philosophers call it) which by a hurtful touch stoppeth the growth of some fruits of the earth that are obnoxious to it, as on the contrary wholesome dew doth nourish them: or some putrifying mist which makes them to rust, eating out their state and substance, as canker fretteth iron; and this the Latin word rubigo (which signifieth mildew as well as rust) seems to import: For as there are winds that do blast, as well as winds that blow vitally and refreshingly, causing the earth to fructify, which are therefore called Zephyrus and Venti Favonij, because they quicken and foster the increase of the earth; so we may conceive that there are some dews and mists which do hurt, as well as others that do help the growth of fruits. Or lastly, might I here interpose what I think, I should say that shrinking of corn by Mildew might be thus: Namely, That in fields less pervious and open to clear & strong winds, (as in lower grounds, or other places between woods and hills) there fall oftentimes sultry and foggy mists; and these covering and keeping too close the fruits of the ground under them, as under thick mantles, do cast that corn or kind of grain which is subject to this malady, as it were, into an unkindly sweat, at such time as the ears thereof are not yet sufficiently filled from the root. By which faint sweat is vented that sweetness which should feed the ear. Now this sweetness once exhausted or drawn out at the stalk or straw, sticks close unto it being burnt or made adust, by some extraordinary heat of the Sun, as it happeneth, especially in the Canicular days, which (as it may seem) made the Romans to sacrifice a dog to Mildew, as Ovid tells us. So that in corn thus smitten we may behold the straw speckled with black spots as it were of soot, which I take to be nothing else but the sweet moisture of the reed exhaled in a faint sweat through a foggy mist or Mildew, and then afterwards by some extraordinary heat turned into a  and black matter. But be it what it is: he that sends it, knows it; And therefore leaving this speculation, seeing the Lord hath but of late smitten us in our grounds with a burning wind, and with Mildew, know it is our duty not so much to dispute or inquire what they are, and whence they come, as to seek how by tears of repentance to quench that fire of his anger that sent this burning into our fields. So by maturely converting now unto him, we shall prevent the next years like affliction, have this sanctified unto us, and be freed for ever from the terrors of that never dying fire.  
Yet I have not done with this clause, till hence I have gathered some observations.  
With Blasting, and Mildew, and Haile] With these he smote them. These than are but rods, they are not gods or goddesses, as the heathen thought them. The Thurij in Aelian made a Deity of the wind, and the Romans set up Mildew for a goddess, as Saint Austin tells us. And both (o ridiculously absurd idolatry!) offered sacrifice to them. But I will not be so unthrifty as to spend one word in refelling so gross a superstition. A bare narration, is confutation enough for so childish a folly. Nor had I vouchsafed so much as once to mention it, but to reprove some Christians that laugh at these Idols, and yet set up others in their stead. Outward prosperity who desires not? yet to dote upon it so much, as to have our affections clung to it, and set altogether upon the things below, what is it but to adore an idol? And yet how many be there that even prostitute their souls before it, and stick not to sacrifice both a good name and a good conscience to demerit it? And what is worldly prosperity (to speak in a worldling's language) but Fortune's sultry wind? indeed a spiritual blasting that shrinks and blighteth virtue in her growth? For as the river Nilus, when it riseth too high, and waters Egypt overmuch, makes the land barren, which otherwise by a mean flowing would cause it to fructify: so the world when it comes too fast upon us with an overswelling redundancy, chokes the seed of God's graces in us, and makes the soul fruitless, as that river doth the soil. It is an aphorism in Physic, that fullness in the extreme is an enemy unto health: And 'tis an axiom in Divinity, that excessive plenty is no friend to grace. For as misfortunes slay the wicked, 
Psal. 34.20.  so the prosperity of fools destroyeth them. 
Prou. 1.32.  Therefore Agur prayed thus, Give me not poverty nor riches, but feed me with food convenient for me, 
Prou. 30.8.9.  lest I be full and deny thee, or lest I be poor and steal. Yea of the two, adversity itself is less adverse to goodness than carnal ease and abundance: as it is not the boisterous wind that hurteth the fruit of the earth, so much as a faint and sultry blowing. It was not the ruffling wind, but the scorching beams of the Sun, that made the man lay aside his cloak, as Plutarch hath it in a parable.  
Worldly prosperity causeth many to put off the garment of holiness and innocence, which they buckled fast unto them, whiles they were exercised with storms of troubles. The zeal of Christians is like that ignis Graecus, which (as a Philosopher speaketh) is inflamed by pouring cold water upon it; or like our English jet, that is fired in water and quenched with oil, (as a learned country man of our own observeth) for it hath ever grown more fervent by affliction, and prospered less in times of prosperity. Thus the Halcyon days of the Church having but breathed a little between the ninth & tenth persecution, brought forth contentions amongst the learned, and much hypocrisy in all sorts, which provoked God's judgements, as Eusebius noteth. It is the warmth of Goat's blood (saith Solinus) that dissolves the Adamant, when neither hammer nor other massy engines of violence can break it. And it is the heat of prosperity, which weakens virtue more than many heavy troubles. Therefore to be too far in love with worldly felicity, that so blighteth goodness and piety, what is it but with the Thurij to make an idol of the wind, and to be in love with blasting? Again, give another instance; some are so far in love with their sins, as that they hate a reprover, and do love nothing more than flatttery that stroketh them: and what is this but with the Romans to sacrifice to Mildew? for honey tongues of parasites, do more hurt than honeydews: these mar but that which should be our meat, but those corrupt the man himself, who (it may be) would disrelish his faults, and abhor them, did not pleasing adulation wrap them up in sugared speeches, and cause him to swallow them down without sense or conscience. For other men's sins are direct objects to our eyes, but our own sins, like our own eyes, we see not but by reflection either of conscience within, or of others information without us. Which if they be false and flatter us, how easily do we yield ourselves to be deceived with such sophistry. The chief reason whereof is the self-love of our own deceitful hearts, which exposeth us over-credulous to others deceitful tongues, & willingly looks not on aught that is evil in us: As the mother of the Minotaur in her natural affection to that monster could never endure to look upon the beastly part of it; some love their sins as their own sons, unwilling to reflect their eyes upon that monstrous foulness that is in them, therefore they hate the very glass of true dealing, that would represent unto them such filthiness: Whereas the deceitful spectacles of false flattery, which shows their good parts (if they have any) greater and better than they are indeed, they put in their bosoms, and hold such for dearest and most intimate friends, as have learned the flattering style. Yet the Greek Orator Demosthenes thought it better to fall amongst ravens than parasites, for those feed upon the dead, these eat up the living. But I have held you too long in a figure: for worldly prosperity is a Blasting, and flattery is a Mildew, but both in the Metaphor. Come we now to the letter, and there observe how these three rods come in bound up together with a conjunctive, With; With Blasting, saith the Prophets, With Mildew, and with Hail. For the two former I find in Scripture that if one be spoken of, 
Deut. 28.22. 1 King. 8.37. Amos 4.9. Hag. 2.17.  the other is mentioned also, and save one place that is the 41. of Genesis, I find not any place wherein they are not brought in, coupled thus, with Blasting and Mildew. Nor is it a wonder that God's corrections should come by couples at least, or by leashes as here, Blasting, Mildew, Hail, when men's corruptions go not only by couples, 
Rom. 13.13.  Gluttony and drunkenness, chambering and wantonness, strife and envying; but thus in troops; There is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the Land. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, 
Hose. 4.12.  and whoring, men break out, and blood toucheth blood. For should not full viols of wrath be poured down on men full of all unrighteousness, and those other sins named by the Apostle, which are so monstrous, 
Rom. 1.29, 30.  that but to remember them is an horror; and so many, that but to repeat them might put a man out of breath. Yet neither are they so monstrous, nor so many, but that (without slandering our times and Nation) we may affirm, that too many Christians (as they would be reputed) succeed the Gentiles in those foul evils there mentioned by the Apostle, if not exceed them also. Notwithstanding, see the gracious lenity and mercy of our God in correcting us and our Land only with some blasting and mildew, and some unseasonable weather in this our last harvest: Whereas he might have given us over, as our neighbour countries, to consume one another by intestine broils and civil wars, or to have been devoured and even laid waste by the sword of a foreigner. Therefore as the Prophet speaks to Niniveh, Art thou better than No, meaning Alexandria, which was full of people, that lay in the rivers, 
Nahum 3.8.  and had the waters round about it, whose ditch was the Sea, and her wall from the Sea: let me speak to Great Britain; Art thou better (I say not, fenced or environed, but, to Godward better affected) than Bohemia? or art thou less sinful than France, or the Palatinate? or some other places also, in which have been acted so many woeful Tragedies of late, whiles thou neither fearing nor feeling the miseries of those rueful inhabitants, sattest as a spectator, or a looker on? Are we better, I say? No; but God hath been better unto us, if so be we are bettered by it, and at length have learned by seeing our brethren beaten before us, to fear our common Father, though we feel not his stripes: for blessed be the mighty God of our jaakob, our Land stands yet vnshaken in all these storms, as a rock in the midst of the sea, whiles the waters roar with tempests round about it. Indeed he hath of late smitten us in some places, but (magnified be his mercy for ever) only with rods of men, 
Psal. 89.32.  not with men-rods, only with blasting and mildew. And in stead of the noise of drums, and the clangour of the trumpets, and clattering of armour, and the fierce neighing of horses, and the sense-amazing terror of the Cannon, we have heard the sound of bells calling us to Prayer and Sermon. In other places they hear the shriek of infants, their Rabels mourning for their children, and will not be comforted because they are not: ours laugh and play in the streets. For balls of wild fire that burn up others with their houses, we have felt but blasting winds in our fields: and for streams of blood which fat other lands with the gore of the inhabitants, we have suffered but mists and mildews, that have somewhat shrunk the fruits of our Land. O that we would be thankful, he hath smitten us only with blasting and mildew. Yet neither had he thus corrected us or this people in my text, if he had not been provoked by us. But such is the nature of sin, it anger's the God of Nature.  
No wonder then (and let it be our next observation) if it trouble and pervert the course of nature, by causing the Maker to turn kindly winds into blasting, the morning's wholesome moisture into mildews, and soft drops of rain into stones. God had no sooner framed this world above and below as an excellent instrument or pair of Organs to set forth his praise, and therein appointed man as the life and breath to sound out his wisdom and goodness in and by all the creatures, but sin came in, and by the Serpents hissing marred the music: Then the heavens above began to look disastrously on the world below: Then the elements below perniciously to mutiny among themselves, and all to conspire man's dissolution, whose matter was compounded of them. Then began the creatures some to rebel against him that revolted from his Maker, and the rest to do him homage but with sighs and groans. 
Rom. 8.22.  Then the earth by enforcement of labour to yield her fruits to nourish him; but without labour, thousands of minerals, and herbs, and plants to poison him. Then his own passions and affections to fight against his reason, which should have been regent over them. Then his own humours to be at a perpetual discord in him, till they had wrought his death. Then the father slew his posterity which were not yet borne. Then the brother imbrued his savage hands in the blood of his brother. Then Nature turned unnatural; nor ever do we hear of crosses in and by the creature, till sinne brought curses into the world. This is it then that troubled Nature; this is it which yet like Ahab troubles Israel.  
It were our wisdom then, to trouble it; if we love our own peace, not to be at peace with it, but continually to fight against it by true repentance. So should the earth yield her kindly increase, nor should we need hereafter to fear or burning of her fruits by winds, or shrinking of them by unwholesome dews. Would we pour down showers of tears, how easily might we procure showers of rain to quell such winds, and to wash away such Mildews, when they fall? But to complain of our smarting by these rods, or to be querulous against these second causes, and not to heed the hand of the chief mover, what is it, but with those foolish people in Aul●s Gellius, to fight with the wind that dried up their waters? or with vain Xerxes in Herodotus to beat the Hellespont that broke down his bridge. As in all other afflictions, so in these we must observe the supreme agent, God himself, that sends them for our good to profit by them: For at his command the winds blow and again are hushed, the air pours out rain or sends down Mildews upon the earth: and it rests in his power to make our land yet more barren, if we continue disobedient; or to fructify, if we repent. It is reported, that the river Nilus makes the land barren if in ordinary places it either flow under fifteen cubits, or above seventeen: and therefore that Prester john (through whose country it runneth, and in which it ariseth from the hills called the Mountains of the Moon) can at his pleasure drown a great part of Egypt by letting out into the river certain vast ponds and sluices, the receptacles of the melted snow from the mountains. Which that he may not do, the Turks who are now the Lords of Egypt, pay a great tribute unto him, as the Princes of that land have done time out of mind: which tribute when the great Turk not long since denied to pay, till by experience he found this to be true, he was afterwards forced with a greater sum of money to renew his peace with that Governor of the Abyssines, and to continue his ancient pay. The truth of this relation I question not: mine author is both of worth and credit eminent, and the thing itself credible. But this we all believe, that the great Emperor of heaven and earth, who sits above us, can at his pleasure make our land and all the regions of the earth, fruitful or barren, by restraining or letting lose the influences of his blessings from above. In respect whereof, besides many other fare greater bonds of duty, we own and should pay unto him a continual tribute of thankful obedience. This if we will not acknowledge and tender, he can force us; for he hath dams and ponds rather, an whole Ocean of judgements in store, which he can (when it seems him good) let down upon us to make both the land fruitless, and the soul itself accursed that rebelleth. Not Blasting only, or Mildew, or fire, or hail, or lightning, or thunder, or vapours, or snow, or stormy winds, but even whole volleys and volumes of curses more than can be numbered, are pressed to do his will, to afflict and vex them that grieve his good spirit by their sins and revoltings especially from the truth. Why then do we taint the air with rotten speeches? Why do we with oaths and blasphemies even blast his heavens that can blast our earth? Why send we up daily so many noisome vapours of our sins, against him that can send to us so many wrathful messengers of his displeasure? They of Tyre and Sydon shall rise up in judgement against us, to condemn us of folly. They would not war with Herod, 
Act. 12.20.  because their country was nourished by the King's land: And shall we by continuance in these and other sins, dare the all-commanding Majesty that is above, by whose blessings the earth, here below, 
Esay 55.10.  ministereth seed to the sour, and bread to him that eateth? Do we so reward the Lord, o foolish people and unwise? 
Deut. 32.6.  What are we stronger than he? or have we not read it, that none can deliver out of his hands? For how shall any hand war against him and prevail, without whom no hand can work and prosper, as it followeth in the next circumstance?  
In all the labours of your hands] In all: 
5. The Manner.  It is an universal note, how shall we take it? In the largest sense; than it would include within the curse, all their labours, whether of tillage or of trading, whether in their ships or shops, at home or abroad, in their houses, or in their fields and vineyards. If all their labours of what kind soever, none excepted, were understood, than their seeled houses which they built, 
Hag. 1.3.  and all the works of their mechanical trades, should have been subject to Blasting and Mildew, which were childish to think. Therefore not to extend this universal note any further than the Prophet here reacheth it: this (All) hath a special reference to their works of husbandry and tillage, in which a great part of this people had been and were now conversant: for it is reported of Nebuzaradan, the king of Babel's Steward, after the sacking of jerusalem, that he left of the poorer sort of the people to dress Vineyards, 
2 King. 25.12.  and to till the land. But what then? did the Lord only correct Husbandmen? were not all the rest of that people, though no tilers of ground, as much if not more to be blamed, for not building the Temple? for this was the principal cause why thus the Lord smote them: Yes, I smote you (saith he) in all the labours of your hands; he means the whole people of the jews, for in that he cursed the labours of the plough, the curse redounded to others of their works also. If those prospered not, all other labours and Labourers fared the worse for it.  
Whence first observe how much the happiness or misery of a people dependeth upon the good or ill success of the ploughman's labours and other parts of husbandry: for if God bless not these, it is a correction upon the whole Land and Country. Surely the noble hand of tillage is that which feeds the world, the King also (and he was the wisest and greatest King that said it) consisteth by the field that is tilled. 
Eccles. 5.8.  Now if this hand that by God's appointment reacheth meat to all mouths, be discouraged, despised, and weakened, all other hands and hearts too must needs grow the fainter; for all are made of clay, and as their substance came from the earth, so must their sustenance be taken thence, and how is that but specially by tillage? Some wretched courses of life, as the Usurers, the Brokers, the Projectors, the Monopolists, 
josua 6.9. Num. 11.25.  and the like gathering host of Dan, are as the spleen, the fuller and bigger their bags are, the leaner and lanker goes it with the Commonwealth: and on the contrary, the less such fill and thrive, the fatter grows the body of the State. But the calling of the Husbandman is as the liver; if it prosper, all far the better for it; if it waste, it proves Macies in corpore toto, a consumption to the whole. Therefore to stop the plough, is in God's account to starve at least the poor. Such then as decay both houses and husbandry, by joining house to house, and field to field, till there be no place for the poor, that so they may be placed by themselves in the midst of the earth, 
Esay 5.8.  are neither Caesars friends, nor the Commonwealths, no nor their own: for this is in mine ears, saith the Lord of hosts; this sin cries so high, that he doth not only hear it, but it is a continual vexation unto him, (as if it were some ringing in his ears that he would be rid of) or an incessant clamour that night and day importunately solicited justice and called for vengeance: 
Esay 5.9.  For this, saith he, shall their own houses one day be desolate. Yea to such (saith that Prophet) pertains a Woe, and he cries it so loud, that another after him answers like an Echo, Woe, for they covet an evil covetousness, 
Hab. 2.10.  and consult shame to their own houses, whiles by destroying many people they make their possessions fields of blood, purchased in effect with the hazard of the lives of God's inheritance for want of food: for how can they be but enemies to the lives of many, that hinder those labours which should feed all? and which when God smiteth, he would have it noted as a correction on the whole Nation, though the curse fall immediately but upon the works of the Husbandman, as here, I smote you in all the labours of your hands, and yet all these labours (to speak properly) were but the labours of the Husbandman. Which again thus offereth another lesson to us:  
That the sins of a whole Land or people are sometimes corrected but in some one or another calling or trade of life, by not blessing which the Lord yet would chasten all. The neglect of building the Temple was generally the fault of all, of the Priest as of the people, of the Governors as of the common sort, of Tradesmen as of Ploughman; yet as if the Husbandman had been more negligent than all the rest, (which is more than can be proved) his labours are smitten for all the rest, and in them all are smitten. As when the whole body is sick, the Surgeon labours to cure it, by opening a vein in some one part or other, by which he doth abate the rankness of the humours in all the rest: so to medicine a sinful state or people, sometimes the Lord smites them in the hand of husbandry, 
Hag. 1.6.  When it sows much and brings but in a little: sometimes he lets them blood in the arm of the soldiery, 
Psal. 89.43.  When he goes not forth with their Armies to battle, but takes away the edge of their sword: sometimes in one calling, sometimes in another, sometimes at once in a many: yet all is but as phlebotomy, or letting of blood in some parts, to ease the whole of that superfluity of vices that would destroy it.  
If then the Lord at this time hath made, not our Vine dressers to howl, for we may say of our land, as the Poet doth of Egypt, Terrasuis contenta bonis, and it hath no such need of these: but if he hath made our Husbandmen ashamed because of the harvest; 
joel 1.11.  if our Clothiers to mourn because of the wool and the flax; if the poor to cry (murmur they should not) that have mouths and no meat, hands and no work, which (God be merciful to our nation) is a double misery; think thus with ourselves, all sorts have sinned as well as these: For we fall away more and more. The whole body is sick, though the physic be applied to some parts. Yet neither is this but an argument of God's mercy, who as a shepherd, sends his barking dogs of dearth and poverty after us his wand'ring sheep, not to devour us, but to reduce us to his fold, and to keep us within the compass of obedience to his laws. Surely he means our good in all this: for as a man suffereth those beasts which he appointeth shortly to be slain, to go in his deepest pastures and to break his hedges without restraint, to the end they may be sooner fatted for the shambles, but keeps shorter such as he purposeth to keep alive; so dealeth the Lord with us: in that by these corrections he now abridgeth our land of that fullness which we ourselves desire, and suffers us not to transgress his statutes without controlment, it is to preserve us: did either he intent our slaughter, we should (it may be) not want a richer feeding: or would we amend our lives, we should not lack it, might it be good for us. But he knows that fullness of bread, 
Ezek. 16.49.  through man's corruption causeth much filthiness. This if our former plenty have brought forth, he purposeth in mercy to purge us, and to make us fit for better blessings; of which we cannot be capable till he hath emptied our souls of their natural defilednesse, and cleansed them by tossing us up and down in some waters of affliction. Yourselves will have your cups and glasses scoured sometimes in salt, into which you pour your wine or oil, but care not to have the troughs washed, in which are served your dogs or swine. Touching such as with the dog return to his vomit, 
2 Pet. 2.22.  and with the swine that was washed to her wallowing in the mire, 
Reu. 22.11.  is that said, He that is filthy let him be filthy; but thus he speaketh to them whom he hath appointed to be vessels of glory; 
Esay 1.  Be ye holy, for I am holy. And again, Wash ye, make ye clean; and if at his persuasion they will not wash themselves by repentance in tears, he will make them do it by troubles; for it is a work which he will have done, to which while his people do not cheerfully consecrate their hands, he can curse them in other labours of their hands, as here, I smote you in all the labours of your hands.  
In all] These all, are properly but all the labours of the Husbandman (as hath been said) yet because all smarted while but these were smitten, he speaks it indefinitely to all, not excluding any, I smote you in all the labours of your hands.  
Which in the third place lights another candle to let us see how we ought to sympathize one with another, in those several afflictions that befall us. I would utter it in this proposition: The crosses that befall others in their lawful callings, doing their honest endeavours, we should esteem partly our own, according to that rule of the Apostle; 
Gal. 6.2.  Bear ye one another's burden, and so fulfil the law of Christ. So he speaks, as if compassion were the fullness and compliment of the law: and indeed so it is, 
Rom. 13.8. Gal. 5.14.  For love is the fulfilling of the law. These places are Scripture enough for proof: may it please you to conceive the reason of the duty thus; A Commonwealth is called a body, sundry callings and conditions of men therein, are as parts organical, or members of the same: There is an head of government that rules all; an eye of counsel that sees for all; a tongue of utterance that speaks for all; arms of valour that fight for all; hands of labour that work for all. Some callings are the legs which support the rest; as the Clothiers and others which are conversant about the staple commodities of the land; others as feet of traffic for commutation to transport the rest. Now all these as fellow members should work for the good of all, and should be so combined in affection, that the hurting or weakening of any one, should make the rest sensible of hurt done to them. For instance; If but the labours oft he Husbandman be blasted, all should feel it, as if themselves were smitten. If Merchandise and Merchants Ships that plough the sea for us to bring in riches, and are the walls of an Island, be discouraged by Pirates, and tempests, or any other sad disasters at Sea or Land: If Clothiers and clothing, the ancient honour and rich commodity of our Nation go down, all other Trades and men of other callings should have a fellow feeling of those miseries: yea all should pity, all should endeavour a redress, or pray for it; the Prince as the Peasant, the judge on the Bench, as the Prisoner at the Bar; he that holdeth the Pike, as he that handleth the Pen; the night-student, as the day-labourer; for the whole body cannot be perfectly whole, if any part be wounded. And therefore, if one member suffer, all should suffer with it. But if in stead of commiseration and compassion one towards another in our several callings, there be nothing but repining against, and undermining of one another: If the Tenant envy his Landlord, and the Landlord set such rents on his grounds, that the Tenant cannot live with comfort: If the Levite fret at the Lawyer's fullness, and the Lawyer grudge at the Levites portion, which is Gods by his own claim: If most malign the Courtier, and the begging Courtier would squise all as sponges: If most abhor the Soldier, and the bloody Soldier desire to prey upon all as a Vulture on dead carcases: If some would have peace, to oppress the poor, and others would have war, to rob the rich: If some would have the seas open to return us foreign vanities, for the necessaries of the land; and others pray for times of reprisal, again to be fishing in troubled waters, (though goods so gotten at sea, and God knows how, have strangely melted in the hands of many since they landed) If thus one sort bite and devour another, let us take heed (saith the Apostle) lest we be devoured one of another. Fourthly, take notice hence of this instruction;  
That when God blesseth not, no labour prospereth, how honest or commodious soever the calling be wherein we labour. A more lawful calling than that of tillage can be none: It had God for the first Author, 
Gen. 3.19. Gen. 3.23. Gen. 9.20.  and Adam the sole heir of the world for the first Practitioner. Noah the Patriarch that survived the old world, lived to till the new also; 
Gen. 26.12.  and Isaac a type of Christ turned Husbandman. Elisha the Prophet was a Ploughman, 
1 Kings 19.19.  and the greatest Kings have delighted both in the praise of it, as Solomon; 
Eccles. 5.8.  and in the practice of it, as Vzziah. 
2 Chr. 26.10.  And that the greatest should not be ashamed to learn the mystery of it, the Lord (who is greater than all) is said to teach it, for thus the Prophet of the Husbandman, 
Esay. 28.26.  His God instructeth him. Christ yet the more to grace it, 
john 15.1:  hath called his Father an Husbandman, his Church a field, his Ministers labourers in it; man's heart reform, God's husbandry; his own word, the seed; good works, the fruits, Angels the reapers, and the general judgement the Lords great harvest. Nor is it more honest than useful, for the abundance of the earth is over all, 
Eccles. 5.8.  that is, there is no worldly thing comparable to the revenues of the earth, whether we respect the universality of their use, in that all even from the King to the kitchen boy are fed by them; or the excellency thereof, in that they nourish life, which gold and silver cannot do. The earth as an Olive berry hath our food without, not within; her mines and metals are too hard for our digestion, nor need we to dig into her womb for meat; if we do but search her outsides, or draw furrows in her surface, we shall find store of most precious and useful riches. This, Aesop, or whosoever else he was, sweetly conveyed to our understanding in that parable of the Husbandman, who when he died, told his sons that he had left unto them gold, buried but a little under ground in his vineyard: which they digged all over after his death, but gold they found none; yet by stirring the mould about the roots of their Vines, the next years vintage proved so plentiful, as made good the old man's promise in effect, according to the sense, not the sound of his words. So that whether we consider the honesty or the use of it, this calling for worldly things hath no fellow: Yet as honest, as useful as it is, when God is not pleased to bless the endeavours of it, they cannot prosper. To build an house, or to watch a city, are both lawful enough; and to be sedulous and vigilant in these works, is even laudable: yet if God's favour be not present to work in the one, and to watch for the other, the Psalmist saith, 
Psal. 127.2.  that both these are in vain. It is not early rising, or going late to bed, 
Prou. 10.22.  but the blessing of God that maketh rich: And this hath quandam universalem influentiam in omnia opera bona, an universal influence into all good endeavours, which when God will restrain, in vain man wearieth himself.  
Be this then ever in our memory, in all our works, begun, continued, and ended in him, still to depend on his goodness, and so to glorify his name: For as without the influence of his blessing, no labour of ours can make us thrive; so with it and by it all our lawful works shall prosper, though the world and malice itself should be set to cross us. When an Alderman of London was given to understand by a Courtier, that Queen Mary in her displeasure against the city, threatened thence to divert both Term and Parliament to Oxford; he asked of him the question, whether she would turn thither the Channel of the Thames or no; if not, said he, by the grace of God we shall do well enough. When either envy of meaner men repineth, or the anger of greater persons rageth against our thriving, we shall do well to remember that there is a river whose streams shall make glad the city of God: 
Psal. 46.4.  a current (I mean) of God's blessings, which while he vouchsafeth to our honest labours and lawful callings, no malice of man or devil shall ever be able to stop or avert. So whiles this river of God keeps its course, we shall do well enough: but if his hand for our sins turn it aside (as it were) into another channel, no wonder then if we prosper not in all the labours of our hands.  
Lastly, hence observe, that it is a just thing with God not to bless them in their works, that neglect his work. The point riseth thus: The building of the Temple was God's work (for this he had enjoined them) but the tilling of their grounds, and dressing of their Vineyards were their works: They were negligent to do the former, therefore God cursed them in the latter: I smote you, saith he, in all the labours of your hands.  
To omit other proof of a doctrine so plain, even that of the Prophet shall now serve the turn, 
jer. 48.10.  Cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently. Hence infer this conclusion; If the not builders of the Temple be accursed, how shall the pullers of it down look for a blessing?  
But what is this to us? we pull it not down. True: yet if we be not builders of it, we are as culpable as these jews. Yea but we have no Churches to build: be it so; yet the Lord hath a work for every one of us; yea, a Temple which yet must be built by us, or we are accursed. What is that? S. Jerome upon this place informs us; 
1 Cor. 3.11.  It is to build up ourselves a Temple unto God, 
1 Pet. 2.  upon Christ jesus the foundation and the Corner Stone; according to that of the Apostle, 
jude 20. v.  Edify yourselves in your most holy faith. Yea the Prophet jeremy tells us what this Temple is, 
jerem. 7.4, 5.  Trust not in lying words, saying the Temple of the Lord, the Temple of the Lord: The Temple of the Lord (saith he) are these (as it is in the last translation:) what are those? It followeth in the fift verse, To redress our ways and our works, to execute judgement between man and man; not to oppress the stranger, or the fatherless, or the widow; to shed no innocent blood, nor to walk after other Gods, etc. For this is the will, yea and the work of God too, 
1 Thess. 4.3.  Even our sanctification, 1 Thess. 4.3.  

1 Cor. 3.17.  Again, Saint Paul tells us what it is; The Temple of God is holy, which ye are, 1 Cor. 3.17. So then we ourselves are this Temple, which must be built in faith, jude verse 20. and renewed in knowledge, Col. 3.10. and re-edified by love, 1 Cor. 8.1. and repaired by repentance: for thus saith the Lord; The heaven is my Throne, and the earth is my footstool, where is that house that ye will build unto me, and where is that place of my rest, Esay 66.1. He answers in the next verse, To him will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my words. This then is the spiritual Temple of the Lord, the new man is the new Temple; 
Psal. 132.14.  This is his rest for ever, here will he dwell, for he hath a delight therein. The Babylonians defaced the first material Temple, and the jews were charged to build it again, which while they neglected to do, God smote them in all their labours. The ghostly enemy of our souls, through envy and malice hath razed and demolished in us that goodly frame of innocency, in which we were created at first, after Gods own image, in righteousness and true holiness. Now this the merciful God would, should be built again, and thus calls upon us to do it: Be renewed in the spirit of your mind, Ephes. 4.23. and Put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge, after the Image of him that created him, Col. 3.10. This is his work, and if we make it not ours also, that is, 
Phil. 2.12.  By working out our own salvation with fear and trembling, how justly may the Lord curse us in all our labours, as he did this people? Either then let us attend God's husbandry, God's building, 
1 Cor. 3.9.  that is, the reformation of ourselves and others, or look not that he should prosper our Husbandry, or whatsoever labour else is ours. In vain shall we purpose to prevent Blasting and Mildew by early sowing, if we repent too late. If we will not plough up our hearts with a godly sorrow, that the seed of his word may take root; 
jer. 4.4.  and bring forth fruit, he can make our seed-to rot under the clods, or by corrections more than we can imagine, smite it in its growth, and even frustrate our fairest hopes, be we never so skilful in choosing of the soil to sow in, or in observing of the season. If we would that our earthly affairs should prove successful, our greatest care should be, first, to seek the kingdom of God, and to recover that by Christ which we lost in Adam. A Persian King (were it Darius Hystaspis, or Xerxes, it is not certain) when the Grecians had taken from him Sardi a famous city in Asia the less, in Saint john's time one of the seven Churches, charged that every day at dinner, one speaking aloud should remember him, that the Grecians had taken the city Sardi from him. Beloved, we have lost more than a city: we have lost our souls, which are of more worth than all the world beside, if Christ do not rescue them from the hands of Satan. O then that we would give our Redeemer no rest by incessant prayers, till he deliver us, and repair our ruins. O that still we would be calling upon him to remember his loss and ours, (for ours is his) till we have regained by him, that which at first was taken from us by the enemy, even the Image of our God after which we were created. This is the Temple of the Lord, and how should we mourn in our souls, and give the temples of our head no rest, 
Psal. 132.5.  till we have found out in ourselves a place for this Temple of the Lord, that we may be a spiritual habitation for the mighty God of jaakob? Yea this should be our care still, by repentance to re-edify the ruins of our souls; in which work alone to thrive were even felicity enough, though we did not prosper in any worldly labour. But alas, too many of us have too great a part in the second general part of my text, which may speak to us as to this people; 
2 General Part.  Yet ye have not returned to me, saith the Lord. Lose not the fruit of your patience (I beseech you) in the last act: and touching this I shall have done in a word; for here I shall but point at some few such things as might hence be noted, and leave them to be enlarged and applied by your own meditations.  
As first, the goodness of God in his corrections of us, that he intends them to be but directions and instructions, to teach us how to return unto him, for that was the end here wherefore he smote this people, that they should return; and it is his aim in all those afflictions which he sends and we suffer, for all such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, such nocuments are documents to them whom he chastens in love.  
Secondly, the illness of man in his corruptions, that he is a runagate from his God, and even then unwilling to be revoked from his wander, when God yet lays such crosses in his way, that if he return not, he cannot prosper.  
Thirdly, the inefficacy or insufficiency of afflictions, which of themselves are never able to reduce us to our Father's home, if they be not sanctified to us, or we rather unto them. Thus we find it in the parable of the Prodigal, that it was not so much the sense of his own misery, as the confidence he had in his father's mercy, which made him return with this resolution, I will go to my father. If as he had spent his portion, he had also lost the comfortable assurance of his father's love and relenting goodness to re-accept him, he had still wallowed in his sins, and stayed by the trough with his unclean fellow-feeders: for afflictions of themselves are of a destroying nature; as corrosives they eat, but they cure not; and therefore corrections if they be ministered unto us not corrected, not sanctified to us by grace, of themselves (as poisons) may do hurt, but can profit us nothing to conversion. O Lord, thou hast smitten them (saith the Prophet) but they have not returned unto thee. In all our afflictions then, let this evermore be our prayer, that we may profit by them, lest it may be said to us, as S. Austin speaks of the Romans, who were not bettered by their troubles; Perdidistis utilitatem calamitatis, & miserrimi facti estis, & pessimi permansistis: Calamities have done you no good; ye have been afflicted, and yet are as ill affected as ever. When physic works not with the Patient, what comfort? When crosses teach not, what hope? And therefore (good Lord) mingle thy grace with thy rods, that they may drive us home to thee, whose arms of mercy are ever open to receive the penitent; That so suffering with our Saviour, we may reign with him, and come at length to that kingdom of rest, where thou wilt wipe away all tears and fears from our eyes.  
FINIS.