spreadeth a net for his feet.' The Hebrew word — Machalik from Chalak — that is here rendered flatterer, signifies a smooth-boots, a soft, butter-spoken man ; because flatterers, the better to deceive, do use to oil their tongues and to butter their lips, that so by their smooth, soft speeches they may the more insinuate themselves into men's affec- tions, and so make way for their destruction. Flatterers have their silken nets to ensnare and entangle poor souls to their eternal ruin. Look, as fowlers strew corn and lay baits to draw birds into their nets ; or look, as hunters spread their nets, that they may take beasts and prey upon them, or make a prey of them ; so flatterers, they spread their nets that they may catch poor souls, and either prey upon them, or else make a prey of them. Flattery is the devil's invisible net ; and happy is that soul that escapes it. The flatterer's net is worse than his sword, for his sword may be the more easily seen, feared, and avoided, than his net. Of aU arms the flatterer's net is the most perilous and dangerous, both to the lives, estates, and souls of men.> It were ten thousand times better to trample a flatterer under a man's feet, than for a man to sufier his feet to be taken in the flatterer's net. A flatterer is a sore enemy in the habit of a friend, he is a wolf in sheep's clothing, he is a devil transformed into an angel of light ; and ■what punishment can be too great for such ? The severity of many ieathen princes and emperors has been very great against flatterers. Take one instance for all : Alexander Severus commanded one Turinus, a great flatterer, to be tied to a stake and stifled with smoke, with a herald standing by, and proclaiming to aU the people, that it was but just that he that lived by the smoke of flattery should die by smoke. i Now what a shameful thing is it that such as are called Christians should afiect to be flattered, when heathens have so severely punished flatterers. WeU, sirs, as ever you would be holy, take heed of flatterers, and take heed of flattery ; let Solomon's counsel be always in your eye, and let it always lie warm upon your hearts : Pro v. xx. 19, ' He that goeth about as a tale-bearer, revealeth secrets : therefore meddle not with him that flattereth with his lips.' A man that loves his soul, and would be happy in another world, should shun flatterers as he should shun a thief, a serpent, a wolf, a lion, a devil. Till thou stoppest thine ears against a spirit of flattery, there is little hopes that ever thou wilt be holy.
5. Fifthly, If ever you would be holy, oh ! then toike heed of put- ting the day of death far from you. Man is a creature naturally prone to look upon death at a distance, to look upon death afar off", and to say with those in Ezekiel, ' Behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are afar off,' Ezek. xii. 27. So the rich man in the Gospel reckoned upon many years, when he had not many months, no not many weeks, no not many days, no not many hours, to live in tills world. Unholy persons are very apt to say to death as Pharaoh said to Moses, ' Get thee from me, and let me see thy face no more,' Exod. X. 28. When death knocks at the poor man's door he sends it to the rich man's gate, and the rich man translates it to the scholar,
^ Augustus Caesar, and Tiberius Csesar, and Sigismund, tlie emperors, all were great enemies to flatterers.
HeB. XII. 14.] AND BEAUTY OF HOLINESS. 20.')
and the scholar posts it away to the citizen, and the citizen to the coiirtier, and the courtier to his lady, and his lady to her maid, and so death is posted away, as it were, from one to another, every one crying out to death. Oh, let me not see thy face ! oh, let me not see thy face 1 It was even a death to Queen Elizabeth, Sigismund the emperor, Louis the Eleventh of France, Cardinal Beaufort, and others, to think of death, or to hear of death ; and therefore they strictly charged all their ser- vants about them, that when they saw them sick, they should never dare to name that bitter word death in their ears. And Pashur can- not cast his eye upon death, but he is presently a Magor-missahih, a terror to himself, Jer. xx. 3. And Saul, though he was a valiant king, yet at the news of death he falls on his face, 1 Sam. xxviii. 20. And so Belshazzar, though he was a mighty emperor — Dan. v. 1-7 — yet a letter to him, from him whom Bildad calleth the king of terrors. Job xviii.l4, ah, how does it amaze, astonish, affright, and terrify him I and how many are there who, with Meecenas in Seneca, had rather live in many diseases than die ; and, with the most famous heathens, prefer the meanest life on earth above all the hopes they have of another world ; like Achilles, who had rather be a servant to a poor country clown here, than to be a king to all the souls departed ; i or like Withi- poll, a rich and wretched man, who, when he was in danger of death, earnestly desired that he might live five hundred years, though it were but in the shape of a toad.^ Near Lewes in Sussex, a woman being ill, one of her neighbours coming to visit her, told her that if she died she should go to heaven and be with God and Jesus Christ, and with angels and saints ; the sick woman answered, that she had no acquaint- ance there, she knew nobody there, and therefore she had rather live with her and her other neighbours here, than to go thither to live amongst strangers. And thus you see how apt persons are to shrug at death, which is a common lot, and to say to it, as Ephraim did to his idols, ' Get you hence, what have we more to do with you ?' But this is and must be for a lamentation, that men put off the thoughts of their lat- ter end to the latter end of their thoughts. Man naturally is a great life-lover, and therefore he will bleed, sweat, vomit, purge, part with an estate, yea, with a limb, ay, limbs, to preserve his life ; like him that cried out, ' Oh, give me any deformity, any torment, any misery, so you spare my life.' And upon this account it is that he desires that such a guest as death may not knock at his door ; but ah ! that all such vain men would consider, that by putting the day of their death far from them, they do but gratify Satan, strengthen their sins, provoke the Lord, and make the work of faith and holiness more hard and difficult, and so lay a deep foundation for their own eternal destruction.
Well, sirs, remember this, the serious thoughts and meditations of death, if anything, will work you to break off your sins, to mend your lives, and to look to the salvation of your souls. There is nothing that will sooner work a man to a holy fear of offending God in any- thing, and to a holy care of pleasing God in everything, than the serious meditation of death. Though that text, ' Remember thy latter
^ Homer: Odyssey, li. 488.— G.