Chap.24. according to St M A T T H H V v. 547 eft defcribeth them. There was never but one Noah, that with two faces faw both beforeand behinde him. But loe that Anci- ent of dales, to whom all times are prefent, hath told us, that the laic (hall be the leofot, the dregs of time, the finkof firmes of all former ages. The love ofmanyAtli \tax cold] Converfationwith cold ones will cart a damp, and make one cold, as our Saviour here inti- mates : there is no fmall danger ofdef'e ion, ifnot ofinfediion by fuch ; they are notable quench-coals. This bothDavidand E(ày found, and therefore cried out each for himfelf, woe is me, Pfal. r 20.5. Ifà.6.5. There is a compulfive power in company to do as they do, Gal.2.14. tvhy c.mpellelt thou, &c. It beho- Rev.a.e. vethus therefore to beware, upon whom the ends of the world a Pex.3, a 7. are come, lea(t we fuffer a decay, leaft leavingour firft love, and ve vita Edrifli led away with the errour of the wicked, we fall fromour former tcb. a caps Predfaftneffe. Theworld, faith Lndolj s, bathbeen once deftroy- ed with water for the heatof luit, and (hall be again with fire for the coldne%of love. Latimer faw fo much lackof love to God and goodneffe inhis time, that he thought verilydoomes day was then juft at hand. Verfe 13. But he that endatreth ] It is but a He, a fingle man, that holdethout : when Many loofe their love, and there- with their reward, 2 loh.8. Ecebolm, e/Eneaa Sylvias, Bald- win, Pendleton, Shaxton and many others, fet forthgallantly ; but tired ere they came to their journies end. Ofthem that verla was verefied, Principium 1Çrvet, medium tepet, exitus alget. Like the Galli In/ibres, they fhewd all their valour in the firit encounter. Like Charles the 8. of France, ofwhomGuicciarden noteth, that in his expedition to Naples, he cane into the field like thunder and lightning, but went out likea fnuffe. Like Man- drobulus in Lucian, who the firft year offered gold tohis gods, the fecond year filter, the third nothing. Or laílly, like the lions of Syria, which as .Arifiotle reporteth, bring forth firft five whelps, next time four, next three, and foon, till at length they become barren. So Apoftates come at lait to nothing, and therefore mutt look for nothing better then to be cart off for ever : when they that hold out and hold on their way, palling from ftrength to itrength, from faith to faith, &c. (hall be as the Sunne when he goeth forth in his ftrength; yea they (hall Thine forth as the Sunne in the kingdom of their father , N n 4 Matth.
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