The merit of belief in Christ's Contemporaries.

Be pleased to consider this great work of believing, in the matter, what it was that was to be believed that that Jesus, whose age they knew, must be antedated so far as that they must believe him to be older than Abraham: that that Jesus, whom they knew to be that carpenter's son, and knew his work, must be believed to have set up a frame that reached to heaven, out of which no man could, and in which any man might be saved: was it not as easy to believe, that those tears, which they saw upon his cheeks, were pearls? That those drops of blood, which they saw upon his back, were rubies? That that spittle, which they saw upon his face, was enamel? That those hands which they saw buffet him, were reached out to place him in a throne? And that that voice which they heard cry, crucifige, crucify him, was a vivat rex, long live Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews; as to believe, that from that man, that worm, and no man, ingloriously traduced as a conjurer, ingloriously apprehended as a thief, ingloriously executed as a traitor; they should look for glory, and all glory, and everlasting glory? And from that melancholick man, who was never seen to laugh in all his life, and "whose soul was heavy unto death;" they should look for joy, and all joy, and everlasting joy and for salva

tion, and everlasting salvation from him, who could not save himself from the ignominy, from the torment, from the death of the cross? If any state, if any convocation, if any wise man had been to make a religion, a gospel, would he not have proposed a more probable, a more credible gospel to man's reason than this? Be pleased to consider it in the manner too: it must be believed by preaching, by the foolishness of preaching, says the apostle; by a few men that could give no strength to it; by ignorant men that could give no reason for it; by poor men that could give no pensions, nor preferments in it: that this should be believed, and believed thus, and believed by the world, the world that knew him not; "he was in the world, and the world knew him not" the world that hated them, who would make them know him; "I have chosen you," says Christ, "and therefore the world hateth you:" that then when "mundus totus in maligno positus," the world and all the world, not only was, but was laid in malignity and opposition against Christ; that then the world, and all the world, the world of ignorance, and the world of pride, should believe the gospel; that then the Nicodemus, the learned and powerful man of the world, should stand out no longer upon their durus sermo; that it was a hard saying, that they must "eat his flesh, and drink his blood," and presently believe that there was no salvation, except they

did eat and drink that flesh and blood: that Mary Magdalene, who was not only tempted, (is there any that is not so?) but overcome with the temptations, (and how many are so?) and possessed with seven devils, should presently hearken after the powerful charm of the gospel, and presently believe that she should be welcome into his arms, after all her prostitutions that the world, this world, all this world, should believe this, and believe it thus; this was the apostle's altitudo divitiarum, the depth of the riches of God's wisdom: and this is his longitudo, and latitudo, the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, which no man can comprehend. Theudas rose up, dicens se esse aliquem'; he said he was somebody, and he proved nobody. Simon Magus rose up, dicens se esse aliquem magnum, saying he was some great body; and he proved as little. Christ Jesus rose up, and said himself not to be somebody, nor some great body; but that there was nobody else, no other name given under heaven, whereby we should be saved; and was believed. And therefore, if any man think to destroy this general, by making himself a woful instance to the contrary-Christ is not believed in all the world, for I never believed in Christ; so poor an objection requires no more answer, but that that will still be true in the general; man is a reasonable creature, though he be an unreasonable mah.

There is something striking in the opening of the 5th Sermon, from the text, "For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

I have seen minute glasses; glasses so short-lived. If I were to preach upon this text, to such a glass*, it were enough for half the sermon; enough to shew the worldly man his treasure, and the object of his heart, (for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also) to call his eye to that minute-glass, and to tell him, there flows, there flies your treasure, and your heart with it. But if I had a secular glass, a glass that would run an age; if the two hemispheres of the world calcined and burnt to ashes, and all the ashes, and sands, and atoms of the world put into that glass, it would not be enough to tell the godly man what his treasure and the object of his heart is. A parrot, or a stare, docile birds, and of pregnant imitation, will sooner be brought to relate to us the wisdom of a council-table, than any Ambrose, or any Chrysostome, men that have gold and honey in their names, shall tell us what the

* Allusions are common, in these sermons, to the hour glass, which, in those times, was placed by the preacher to regulate the length of his sermon. One long-winded divine, when he had got to the end of his first hour, used to turn up the regulator, and say, "with your leave, gentlemen, we will have one glass more."

sweetness, what the treasure of heaven is, and what that man's peace, that hath set his heart upon that

treasure.

His descriptive allusion, in the 21st Sermon, to the lewd courses of some of the Londoners at the time of the plague, is very awful.

No doubt but the hand of God fell upon thousands in this deadly infection, who were no more affected with it, than those Egyptians, to cry out, omnes moriemur, we can but die, and we must die: and, edamus et bibamus eras moriemur, "let us eat and drink and take our pleasure," and make our profits, "for to-morrow we shall die," and so were cut off by the hand of God; some even in their robberies, in halfempty houses, and in their drunkenness, in voluptuous and riotous houses; and in their lusts and wantonness in licentious houses; and so took in infection and death, like Judas's sop, death-dipt and soaked in sin. Men whose lust carried them into the jaws of infection in lewd houses, and seeking one sore perished with another; men whose rapine and covetousness broke into houses, and seeking the wardrobes of others, found their own winding-sheet in the infection of that house where they stole their own