another, and lose their distinctions; when as the elements are condensed into one another, air condensed into water, and that into earth, so an obsequious flatterer, shall condense a yeoman into a worshipful person, and the worshipful into honourable, and so that which duly was intended for distinction, shall occasion confusion. But that which we purpose, in noting this tu, is rather the singularity, the particularity, than the familiarity; that the Holy Ghost in this collects man, abridges man, sums up man in an unity, in the consideration of one, of himself. Oportet hominem fieri unum, Man must grow in his consideration, till he be but one man, one individual man. If he consider himself in humanitate, in the whole mankind, a glorious creature, an immortal soul, he shall see this immortal soul, as well in goats at the left hand, as in sheep at the right hand of Christ, at the resurrection; men on both sides: if he consider himself in qualitate, in his quality, in his calling, he shall hear many then plead their prophetavimus, we have prophecied, and their ejecimus, we have exorcised', and their virtutes fecimus, we have done wonders, and all in thy name, and yet receive that answer, Nunquam cognovi, I do not know you now, I never did know you'. Oportet unum fieri, he must consider himself In individuo, That one man, not that man in nature, not that man in calling, but that man in actions. Origen" makes this use of those words, as he found them, Erat vir unus, There was one man, (which was Elkanah) he adds, Nomen ejus possessio Dei, This one man, says he, was, in his name, God's possession; Nam quem dæmones possident, non unus sed multi, For he whom the devil possesses, is not one. The same sinner is not the same thing; still he clambers in his ambitious purposes, there he is an eagle; and yet lies still grovelling, and trodden upon at any greater man's threshold, there he is a worm. He swells to all that are under him, there he is a full sea; and his dog that is above him, may wade over him, there he is a shallow, an empty river. In the compass of a few days, he neighs like a horse in the rage of his lust over all the city, and groans in a corner of the city, in an hospital. A sinner is as many men, as he hath vices; he that is

7 Clem. Alex. Matt. vii. 22.

The folio edition has "exercised."

10

Origen Homil. unica in lib. Reg.

Elkanah, Possessio Dei, Possessed by God, and in possession of God, he is Unus homo, One and the same man. And when God calls upon man so particularly, he intends him some particular good. It is St. Hierome's note, That when God in the Scriptures speaks of divers things in the singular number, it is ever in things of grace; and it is St. Augustine's note, that when he speaks of any one thing in the plural number, it is of heavy and sorrowful things; as Jephtha was buried In civitatibus Gilead", In the cities, but he had but one grave; and so that is, they made Aureos vitulos, golden calves, when it was but one calf.

When God's voice comes to thee in this text, in particular, tu, hast thou found, he would have thee remember, how many seek and have sought, with tears, with sweat, with blood, and lack that, that thou aboundest in. That whereas his evidence to them whom he loves not, in the next world, shall be, esurivi, I was hungry, and ye gave me no meat1; and his proceeding with them. whom he loves not in this world, is, si esuriero, If I be hungry, I will not tell thee 13, I will not awaken thee, not remember thy conscience wherein thou mayest do me a service; he does call upon thee in particular, and ask thee, nonne tu, hast thou not fortune enough, to let fall some crumbs upon him that starves? and nonne tu, hast not thou favour enough, to shed some beams upon him that is frozen in disgrace? There is a squint eye, that looks side-long; to look upon riches, and honour, on the left hand, and long life here, on the right, is a squint eye. There is a squint eye, that looks upwards and downwards; to look after God and mammon, is a squint eye. There are squint eyes, that look upon one another; to look upon one's own beauty, or wisdom, or power, is a squint eye. The direct look is to look inward upon thine own conscience; not with Nebuchadnezzar, Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by the might of my power, and for the honour of my majesty'? But with David, Quid retribuam? for if thou look upon them with a clear eye, thou wilt see, that though thou hast them, thou hast but found them, which is our next step.

11

Judg. xii. 7.

13 Psalm L. 12.

12 Matt. xxv, 42,

Dan. iv. 30,

Now, if you have but found them, thou hast them but by chance, by contingency, by fortune. The emperor Leo', he calls money found, Dei beneficium, it is a benefit derived from God; but the great lawyer, Triphonius", calls it Donum fortunæ too, an immediate gift of fortune. They consist well enough together, God and fortune. St. Augustine in his retractations, makes a conscience of having named her too oft, lest other men should be scandalized; and so the prophet complains of that, (as the Vulgate reads it) Ponitis mensam fortuna", You sacrifice to fortune, you make fortune a god; that you should not do; but yet you should acknowledge that God hath such a servant, such an instrument as fortune, too. God's ordinary working is by nature, these causes must produce these effects; and that is his common law; he goes sometimes above that, by prerogative, and that is by miracle, and sometimes below that, as by custom, and that is fortune, that is contingency; fortune is as far out of the ordinary way as miracle; no man knows in nature, in reason, why such, or such persons grow great; but it falls out so often, as we do not call it miracle, and therefore rest in the name of fortune. We need not quarrel the words of the poet, Tu quamcunque; Deus tibi fortunaverit horam, Grata sume manu, Thank God for any good fortune, since the apostle says too, that Godliness hath the promise of this life; the godly man shall be fortunate, God will bless him with good fortune here; but still it is fortune, and chance, in the sight and reason of man, and therefore he hath but found, whatsoever he hath in that kind. It is intimated in the very word which we use for all worldly things; it is inventarium, an inventory; we found them here, and here our successors find them, when we are gone from hence. Jezebel had an estimation of beauty, and she thought to have drawn the king with that beauty 18, but she found it, she found it in her box, and in her wardrobe, she was not truly fair. Achitophel had an estimation of wisdom in council, I know not how he found it; he counselled by an example, which no man would follow, he hanged himself. Thou wilt not be drawn to confess, that a man that

15 Co. 1. 10.

17 Isaiah LXV. 11.

16 Pand.

18

2 Kings ix. 30.

hath an office, is presently wiser than thou, or a man that is knighted, presently valianter than thou. Men have preferment for those parts, which other men, equal to them in the same things, have not, and therefore they do but find them; and to things that are but found, what is our title? Nisi reddantur, rapina est, says the law, If we restore not that which we find, it is robbery. St. Augustine hath brought it nearer, Qui alienum negat, si posset, tolleret, He that confesseth not that which he hath found of another man's, if he durst, he would have taken it by force. For that which we have found in this world, our calling is the owner, our debts are the owner, our children are the owner; our lusts, our superfluities are no owners: of all the rest, God is the owner, and to this purpose, the poor is God. St. Augustine" puts a case to the point: he says when he was at Milan, a poor usher of a grammar school found a bag of money, ducentorum solidorum; let it be but one hundred pounds; he set up bills; the owner came, offered him his tithe, ten pounds; he would none; he pressed him to five, to three, to two; he would none: and then he that had lost it, in an honourable indignation, disclaimed it all; Nihil perdidi, says he, it is all your own, I lost nothing: Quale certamen! Theatrum mundus spectator Deus, Out of importunity, he that found it, took it all, and out of conscience, that it was not his, gave it all to the poor.

The things of this world we do but find, and of the things which we find, we are but stewards for others. This finding is

of seeking; we

not so merely casual, as that it implies no manner must put ourselves into the way, into a calling. The word is matza, and that word is allowed us; but a word like it, is not allowed us; matza is, but matzah 20 is not; if there be an H added, an H, as it is an aspiration, a breathing, a panting after the things of this world, or an ache, as it is a pain, that it make our bones ache, or our hearts ache, or our conscience ache, it is a seeking, or a finding, not intended in this word. Our prosecution and seeking must be moderate, our title and interest is but a finding; and what hath the most fortunate found? Honey; it is true, but yet but honey.

19

Aug. Serm. xix. de verb. Apost.

20 Matzah, Exsuxit, vel expressit.

That which Solomon may justly seem to intend especially by honey in this text, is that which the poets, and other masters of language, have called Magnas amicitias, and Magnas clientelas, dependance, and interest, and favour in great persons. It appears by the next verse, which depends upon this, and paraphrases it; Withdraw thy foot from thy neighbour's house. Where that which we read, withdraw, is in the original hokar, which is fac pretiosum, make not thyself cheap, not vulgar, have some respect to thyself, to thine own ingenuity, but principally to the other, to thy great friend be not importune and troublesome by any indiscreet assiduity, to them who are possessed with business, though at some times they descend to thee; this is this honey, where thou hast access, yet do not push open every door, fling up every hanging, but use thy favour modestly.

But in this honey is wrapped up also all that is delightful in this life; and Solomon carries us often to that comparison: in the chapter before this, (ver. 13,) for wisdom; My son, eat thou honey, because it is good; so shall the knowledge of wisdom be to thy soul; and in the seven-and-twentieth verse of this chapter, he uses it for glory; It is not good to eat much honey; so for men to search their own glory, is not glory. In the sixth chapter of this book, when Solomon had sent us to the ant, to learn wisdom, between the eighth verse and the ninth, he sends us to another school, to the bee: Vade ad apem et disce quomodo operationem venerabilem facit, Go to the bee, and learn how reverend and mysterious a work she works*. For, though St. Hierome acknowledge, that in his time this verse was not in the Hebrew text, yet it hath ever been in many copies of the Septuagint, and though it be now left out in the Complutense Bible, and that which they call the King's, yet it is in that still, which they value above all, the Vatican. St. Hierome himself" takes it into his exposition, and other fathers into theirs. So far therefore we may hearken to that voice, as to go to the bee, and learn to work by that creature.

Both St. Basil 22 and St. Chrysostom" put this difference in that place, between the labour of the ant, and the bee, that the ants work but for themselves, the bee for others: though the ants

21 In Ezek. iii. 3.

*This verse is not in the English translation.

Basil. Hom. viii. in Hexa.

23

Chrysost. in Psalm cx.