thou wilt seek the friendship of the world, thou shalt be an James iv. enemy to God. So saith St Paul to Timothy: "Preach the 2Tim. iv. word, be earnest, reprove, rebuke in season and out of season;" spare no time, place, labour, nor person; lay it amongst them, tell them their duty, let it work as God will. Do thou thy duty, and as much as in thee lies; and let God alone with the rest. God requires nothing of thee but thy labour the increase belongs to God alone to give as he thinks good. St Paul, comparing himself with the other apostles, 1 Cor. xv. saith, he "laboured more than any of the rest, and filled all places and countries with the gospel betwixt Jerusalem and Illyricum;" but he never tells how many he converted to the faith, for that is the work of God, and neither he which 1 Cor. iii. grafts, nor he which waters, is anything, but God which gives the increase.

:

Rom. xv.

weak is to

withal.

And although the scripture require that a preacher, which is a steward of God's house, must be ware as a serpent and simple as a dove, and the weakness of our brethren that have not learned their liberty, must be borne with for a time; yet are we not bidden always to do it, nor be so wise that to please man we displease God. When our How far the Saviour Christ had taught that it was lawful to eat all kinds be borne of meats, at all times, for all men, in all places, the Pharisees were angry with him, and his disciples told him of their anger; but he answered: "Let them alone; they be Matt. xv. blind guides of the blind:" he passed not for the offending of them, for they might have learned the truth if they had lust. So must we bear with the weak until they be taught sufficiently and if they will not learn, we must not lose our liberty for their foolishness, but answer them as Christ did. And as the faithful husband is not bound to the un- 1 Cor. vii. faithful wife, if she will not abide with him; so is not our liberty bound to the froward superstitious papists that will not learn. It is better to offend, says Gregory, than to forsake a truth and Chrysostom' teaches, that when more commodity comes by offending than hurt, we must not care for the offence but this commodity that he means is not worldly,

[ Διὰ δὴ τοῦτο, ὅταν μὲν ἴδῃ πολὺ τὸ κέρδος καὶ τῆς τοῦ σκανδάλου βλάβης μείζον, καταφρονεῖ τῶν σκανδαλιζομένων. Contra eos qui subintroductas habent virgines. Tom. 1. p. 284. Paris. 1834. Ed.]

1 Cor. viii. but godly, and bringing many to Christ. "I had rather never eat flesh," saith St Paul, "than offend my brother:" but that is spoken for the weak, that have not been sufficiently taught, and all doubts they can lay, taken away; but to the stubborn, sturdy, stiffnecked papists (which teach that some meats at some times are unclean and unholy for some men to eat, and so makes man to serve creatures in conscience, that he dare not handle that over which God made him lord) he never said so, but contrarily, "Let them alone; they be blind guides of the blind." Like is to be said in marriage of priests, handling their chalice, corporas', and such other burdens as they lay not only on the bodies, but miserably on the consciences, of them which will believe them. "Stand in the liberty to the which ye be called," saith St Paul, "and be not subject to such yokes and beggarly ceremonies:" let not such Cayphas tread you down; but keep your consciences in knowledge free to use freely all the good creatures of God made for your use, according to the scripture, with soberness and thanksgiving.

Gal. v.

All sorts

have work in God's house to do.

Exod. XXXV.

1 Tim. iv.

Rom. xiii.

Thus all the people is chid here for their disobedience, that they builded not God's house, although they were forbidden by the king, or could make like excuses. God sent them all home to do this work, and required it of them all; and yet they were all so far from doing it, that they let it lie, not only unbuilded, but waste, desert, never regarding it. There was work for all sorts of men, the costly pieces for the rich, the meaner for the common sort, and the felling of trees, carrying mortar, &c. for the poorest and simplest.

When Moses should make the tabernacle and tent, wherein they should resort to serve God until the temple was builded, the rich sort offered gold, silver, brass, iron, silk, and such like; but the poorest when they came and brought but goats' hair, it was thankfully taken, and did good service in that work; for the uppermost cloth, that covered the tent, was made thereof to keep away rain and storms. And to the younger sort, that they should not think themselves unmeet, saith St Paul," Let no man despise thy youth;" and generally to every man he saith, "It is now time to rise out of sleep." Bring Corporas: the cloth on which the consecrated wafer was deposited. ED.]

thinks

himself is

afore God

so much to this building as you can; let no fault be found in you for lack of good will. God will take in good part the little ye can do. Let not the simplest think, I am unworthy to do such things, God needs not my labour, I am too vile to serve him; or it belongs not to me: for he only is worthy whom God makes worthy, and he only is welcome He that whom he will vouchsafe to take in good worth. Of ourselves lowliest of the best man living is unworthy; and the more unworthy that meetest thou thinkest thyself unfeignedly, the more worthy thou art to build. afore him. Gedeon, when he was taken from threshing his Judges vi. corn, and made a captain to deliver God's people, said: “Who am I, the youngest and least of all my brethren, or what is my father's house, that his stock afore all the rest should be taken to this honour?" So said Saul also, taken from the 1 Sam. ix. plough following his oxen, and made a king and as long as he continued in this lowliness of mind, and did his duty, he was a good king. So Amos keeping beasts, an herdman, Amos vii. and pulling mulberries off the trees, when he was called to be a prophet, wondered that God would call such a simple man as he was to that high office. So the Virgin Mary, when Luke i. the angel saluted her, wondered that God would call such a poor maiden and virgin to be the mother of his Son. But ever he that thinks himself unworthy, God takes him as worthy; and those that think so highly of themselves that they be worthy, God refuses, and makes unworthy. There- Every man fore let every man that feels himself in conscience withdrawn be spoken to from doing his duty to God by any kind of sin, say thus to himself: Is it time for thee to delight thyself in this or that kind of sin, and God's house unbuilt? Think that God hath left this in writing to rebuke him, and stir him up to be more diligent in repairing his house wherein God dwells. And let every man comfort himself that God not only requires, but takes in good part, the least service that the poorest man living can do.

think this to

himself.

And as he said afore in the second verse, "This people saith, It is not time to build," &c., noting the unkindness of that people, to whom he had so often and long been so loving a lord and master; so he saith now, "This house lies waste," to set out before them the greatness of their disobedience; that they did not neglect and leave unbuilt a common house, being neg

"The worthiness of the

place mak

eth the fault greater

lected.

a bishop's palace, or an abbey; but that house wherein God 1 Kings viii. himself said he would dwell, where only they should offer their

God's house.

'The Text.

sacrifices, which only not out of the whole world, but among the places, towns, and cities in all Jewry, he chose by name to be worshipped in; in which only he was most delighted, and made promise to Salomon in the dedication of the same, that he would hear the prayers of them that there called upon him in faith. That house, they did not only suffer it to decay, but were so forgetful of it that they let it lie waste, desolate, laid no hand to it, as though it belonged not to them, nor it were their duty; they had so far forgotten God, which willed them so straitly to do it. The Lord for his mercy sake grant, that the same unkindness may not be laid justly against us, which leave that house unbuilt, yea, tread under our feet like filthy swine, wherein not the sacrifices of Moses are offered, but for the salvation of which Christ offered his body a sacrifice to be killed, and his blood shed, and in which his Holy Spirit dwells, if through unthankfulness we drive him not away. This house is the holy church of Christ generally, and our own bodies and souls particularly, which be not only members and parts of his mystical body, but the temple and house where the Holy Ghost dwells, and wherein he will chiefly be worshipped.

v. 5. And now thus saith the Lord of hosts: Consider in your hearts your own ways.

6. You have sown much, and brought in but little; ye have eaten, and not been satisfied; ye have drunk, and not been filled with drink; ye have been clothed, and not kept warm; ye have wrought for wage, and put your wages in a purse with a hole in the bottom.

Although ye have lien long without consideration of your duty toward God and his house building; and have been sore punished of God, and not known the cause of it; and have sought your pleasure and profit, but not obtained them, being so blinded in fulfilling your worldly lusts; yet now the mighty Lord of hosts and power, whom all other creatures (except you) obey, gives you warning now to consider better in your heart your time past, and not so negligently weigh

:

Sin maketh

feeling of

plagues.

the working of God with you; for he hath long punished you to have had you to amend, and ye regard it not at all. Sin 1 John ii. of itself is darkness, and whosoever walks in sin walks in us without darkness, and knows not what he doeth and if a man give God and his himself to be ruled by sin, it makes of fools madmen, and darkens so the reason, that it knows not what to do or say. They had thus many years been plagued, and knew not the cause why, but laid it on some other chance than not building God's house, which was the chief cause; or else, like insensible beasts without the fear of God, regarded it not, as though it had come of some natural cause, and God had not plagued their sin. But as his disease is most perilous, which lies sick and feels not his sickness, nor cannot complain of one part more than another, (for then the disease hath equally troubled the whole body;) so they which lie wallowing in sin, so forgetting God and all goodness, that they feel no remorse of conscience, are desperate and almost past all recovery: yet God, most mercifully dealing with this people, sends his prophet to warn them, and stir them out of their sleep, that there they should no longer so lightly weigh God's displeasure towards them, but deeply weigh why and wherefore these plagues were thus poured upon them. The schoolmaster corrects not his scholar, nor the father his child, but for some fault, and for their amendment: no more hath God sent these plagues to you so many years, but to remember you of your disobedience towards him, and that ye should turn to him. But if the lewd scholar or unthrifty son do not regard the correction laid upon him, nor consider not the greatness of his fault, nor the displeasure of his father or schoolmaster, there is no goodness to be hoped for of him: so is it with you, if ye thus lightly or else not at all consider your life past, God's dealing with you, and how evil things have prospered with you all the time ye thus have disobeyed God. "When the life of man pleases God," says Salomon, "all Prov. xvi. things prosper and go forwards with him:" but when he of fends his God, all creatures turn to his hurt and hinderance. "If thou hear the voice of the Lord thy God," saith Moses, Deut. xxviii. "and keep all the commandments which I teach thee, the Lord will make thee greater than all other people: thou shalt be blessed in the city and in the field; thy children, the fruit

[PILKINGTON.]

4

[7.]