* There was no flesh so sweet as that which the eagle robbed the altar of.
' He writ a book to provoke the appetite. [Rather Apion the grammarian wrote a book upon the luxurious labours of M. Gabius Apicius. Cf. among many references Suidas, 8. n. AvLkos. — G.]
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 59
[5.] Fifthly, Natural fools are taken more with the outward shine, lustre, beauty, and glory of things, than they are taken loith the intrin- secal virtue, value, and luorth of them; they are more taken with the shine and histre of gold, jewels, and precious stones, than they are with the worth and value of them. So unholy hearts are taken more with the form of godliness than they are with the power, 2 Tim. iii. 5 ; they are taken more with a name to live, with a name of being holy, than they are taken with holiness itself. Rev. iii. 1 , 2. Multi Chris- tianum nomen ad judicium hahent, non ad remedium [Augustine] : Many have the name of Christians to their condemnation, not to their salvation, Isa. Iviii. 2-6 ; Mat. i. 21 ; Zechariah vii. 4-7 ; Mat. xxiii. They are taken more with the outward shine and pomp of duties, than they are taken with the spiritualness and holiness of duties ; they are taken more with what of man is in duty, than they are taken with that of God which is in a duty ; they are taken more with raised notions, than they are taken with raised affections ; they are taken more with some witty, rhetorical expressions in duty, than they are taken with the holy movings and breathings of the spirit in duty, Ezek. xxxiii. 30-32. All which speaks them out to be spiritual fools ; and indeed no fools to those who are taken more with the shadow of religion than they are with the substance of religion ; who are taken more with the outside of godliness than they are with the inside of godliness : for what is this but to be taken more with the outside of the cabinet, than with the treasure that is within ? or to be taken more with the purse that holds the gold, than with the gold that is in the purse ? and with Democritus the philosopher, to esteem a room covered over with green branches of trees above the royal palace ?
(6.) Sixthly, Natural fools are all for the present; they cry out, Spend and Grod will lend ; they only mind and care for the things of this life : as what they shall eat, and what they shall drink, and what they shall put on. They are all for their bodies, their bellies, their backs : they take no care, they make no provision for their immortal souls. 1 A spruce Roman riding on a lean jade, was asked by the censor his reason : he answered, I look to myself, but my man to my horse. So fools look only to their bodies ; let who list look to their souls. Such fools are all unsanctified persons ; they look only after their bodies, and their outward concernments ; they look not at the necessities, miseries, and wants of their souls. Such were those in John vi. 26, 27, who crossed the seas and followed after Christ for loaves, but never looked after the meat which endureth to everlasting life. And such fools were those in Hosea vii. 14, ' who howled upon their beds for corn and wine :' let them have but provender, provant^ for their bodies, and they care not what becomes of their souls ; and such were they in Phil. iii. 19, 'whose god was their gut.' And such were the Laodiceans in Rev. iii. 14-19, who had well-fed bodies, but starved souls ; whose houses were full of goods, but their hearts empty and void of Christ and grace ; who had threadbare souls under all their purple robes ; who were rich in temporals, but very poor and beggarly in spirituals. And such a one was that rich fool in Luke
1 They cry as the epicure cried, Utere temporibus, prcesentibus utere rebus.
* ' Make proTision for,' another Shakesperian word, as 'provand,' Coriolanus II. 1.— G.
60 THE NECESSITY, EXCELLENCY, EARITY, [HeB. XIT. 14.
xii., who only laid up for his body for this life, but never took care for an- other life, for a better life ; he makes many years' provision for his body, and not a day's provision for his soul ; he talks of living many years, when he had not a day nor a night to live in this world. And being thus foolish in his reckoning, Christ brands him for a fool to all gene- rations : ver. 20, 21, ' Thou fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee : then whose shall these things be which thou hast provided ? ' So is he that heapeth up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God. Every man in the world is a fool that heaps up treasure to himself, that adds land to land, and house to house, and heap to heap, and bags to bags, and hundreds to hundreds, and thousands to thou- sands, and is not rich towards Grod.i fpjiig ^ge is full of such golden fools, who pamper their bodies, but starve their souls : who trick and trim up their bodies with gold, silver, and silks, whilst their souls are naked, and ragged, and destitute of all grace and goodness. The Jews have a story of a foolish woman that took two children to nurse, the one very mean, deformed, crooked, blind, and not likely to live long ; the other a goodly, lively, lovely, beautiful child, and likely to live long : now this foolish woman spent all her pains, care, diligence, and attendance upon the worst child, never so much as minding or regarding the best child. This age is full of such foolish men and women, who, having two to nurse, their bodies and their souls, spend their time, their care, labour, and pains in making provision for the flesh, in laying up for their bodies, and in the meanwhile never regard their souls, never look after their souls, though they have the beauty of a deity upon them, and though they are immortal, and capable of union and communion with God in grace, and of a blessed fruition of God in glory. Surely no fools to these fools.