circumcifion, as S. Paul speaks, that is, his perfo Some are leprous-others pa#alytic-fome are lame-others dumb--fome deaf--others blind-&c. Thefe difeafes, dangerous in patients, are intolerable in phyficians, clerical blindness, lameness, &c. are infufferable."This is really a good difcourfe, and a great many juft and adequate ideas are taught under images in themselves difagreeable: but in their effects, perchance, not fo. Paft. Infruct. Carol. Borromei, orat. vi. Let us judge thus of our own divines, who have expofed religious knowledge to view, 1. Under medical images. Prefervative or triacle, [treacle] against the poyfon of Pelagius. By Dr. Will. Turner, 1551.-Difcovery of ten English lepers, very noifom to the church-1. A fchifmatike. 2. A church-robber. 3. A fimoniacke, &c. By Tho. Timme, 1592.-The fick man's falue, &c. By Tho. Becon, 1591. -A weapon-falve for the church's fores. Stilling fleet. The Anatomy of the Maffe, 1555 2. Mufical images.-Harony from heauen-Song of Simeon, Luke ii. 29.-Trumpet of the foul, Eccl. xi. 9.. by Hen. Smith, 1595.-The pebering of the Maff, written in meeter, 1555-David's nal Harp. Exp. 115 Pfalm. Tho. Beçon, 1567.-Dromme of doomef-day. 3. Natural images-Seven Sobs of a forrowful foul. Will. Hunnis, 1578. Seven penitential pfalms in metre-Hive full of honey. Genefis in metre.-Handful of bonnifuckles-Diamond of devotion. Fleming, 1580. 4. Trade images. The craft for to die, 1506-Heavenly thrift, Luke viii. 18. Chrift. Shutte. 1577.-The ripping up of the pope's fardel, (a fardel was a pedlar's pack.)-The way to wealth, by Rob. Crowley, 1550. There would be no end of tranfcribing titles. Mirrors -looking glasses-Spying glasses -Spectacles for blind papifts pathways-ladders-doorspais for preachers-alarms for finners-cordials for faints combats with the devil-and poifons for the pope-Thefe were the names of fome of the artillery, with which our ancestors befieged courts and pulpits, fynods and fchools, then occupied by papists, and with which they actually drove them thence. I feel a facred awe at beholding the venerable old inftruments, "ftirring up dialogues between Lent and liberty-deli berate aunfweares to prove papiftes antichriftian fchisiga nal ministerial commiffion was only to the Jews: tikes and apologies for thofe Englishe preachers, which Cerberus, the three-headed but dog of hell charged with "God fave the king, and speed the plough, See Maunfell's Catalogue. black tinder-box, that ftands in a footy hole in the kitchen chimney. Venerable flint and fteel, tinder and tin! Parent of all this light and heat! Peace be with you! (7) Obferve occafions. The abufe of any thing will justify a preacher in decrying on one occafion what on another he would recommend," there are two reafons of difguft with knowledge. I. The little progrefs, which they make, who carry their investigations fartheft. In proportion to the advance, that we make in this wide field, we difcover new and unbounded fpaces, or, fhall I fay, new abyffes beyond our skill to fathom? the more we are nourished in the deep pafture of human fcience the more hungry we are; the eye is never fatisfied with fering, nor the ear with hearing, and af making many books there is no end. 2. The little juftice, that is rendered in the world to thofe, who excel in knowledge, is another reason of difguft. He, that increaseth knowledge, increofeth forrow; it happineth to me erven as to a fool. but when he was exalted to glory, his ministry extended over the whole earth. (7) fool. Yes, after you have devoted your youth, injured your health, and spent your fortune to inform your own mind, and to enable you to inform thofe of others, it will happen to you even as it happeneth to a fool. You will be told, fciences are unworthy the purfuits of a man of quality. A Plebeian, who fets up for a man of quality, will tell you, a man of birth and breeding fhould aspire at fomething more noble than queftions of jurifprudence, cafes of confcience, and expofitions of fcripture. You will be told, there does not require fo much knowledge to fhine in political ftations, and to judge upon tribunals concerning the fortunes and lives of your fellow-citizens. Young prefumptuous lads will pifs a final judgment upon your difcourfes, and will fay, with a decifive tone, this is not folid, that is fuperficial. The fuperiority of your knowledge will raife up against you a world of ignoramufes, who will affirm, that you corrupt youth, when you would guard them against prejudices: that you ftrike at orthodoxy, when you endeavour to heal the wounds, which pedantry and perfecation have given it: that you trouble fociety, when you would purify morality, fubjecting to its holy laws the great as well as the small, magiftrates as well as fubjects. In a word both in church and state they will prefer novices before you, novices hardly worthy to be your difciples. Happy idiots! who, intoxicated with vanity, and inclofed in a circle of idiots like yourfelves, inhale the fmoke of their incenfe, after you have been ftupified with your own. You, who affect bombaflick phrafes, hoift the fails of your fwelling eloquence, and fail before a fair wind into this ocean of glory. You, whofe fuperb nonfenfe, whofe ftale common-places, whofe pedantick fyftems have gained you a reputation of knowledge and erudition, your condition appears often to me preferable to that of the moft refined geniu ffes, the moft confummate fcholars. Ah! it happeneth to me as to a fool, I have hated this life, &c." Saurin. ferm. tom. xii, fur le degout du monde. XVIII. CONTRAST WORDS AND ACTIONS. (8) Thus you may oppose the agonies and terrors, which feized Jefus Chrift at the approach of death, against (8) Contraft words and actions. This is, as our author presently expreffes it, one of the finest topicks of illuftration. There is no end of the utility of it in theology. It illuftrates revelation by contrafting it with all fyftems of natural religion. Never man pake like this man. John vii. 46.-It illuftrates chriftianity by placing it oppofite to Judaifm. Ye are not come to mount Sinai : but ye are come to mount Zion. Heb. xii. 18, 22.-It diftinguifheth true minifters of Christ from pretenders. We are not as many who corrupt the word of God: but we speak as of God. 2 Cor. ii. 17. xi, &c.-It difplays the beauty of a true church by comparing it with the deformity of falfe religion. Of Mohammedifm, popery, and all political religions it may fafely be afked, what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? 2 Cor. vi. 16.It is of excellent ufe in preaching the law, by contrafting what men are with what they ought to be. 2 Pet. iii. It is excellently adapted to comfort by comparing the wildom of provi VOL. II. dence with the folly of him, who complains of it; the fufficiency of pardoning mercy with the abundance of a finner's unworthiness; the pleafures of piety with the amufements of fin; the privileges of a faint with the licentioufnefs of a finner; the aids of the holy Spirit with the efforts of the tempter; the joys beyond death with the agonies of dying-It is useful to recover a backflider, by comparing his prefent ftate with a former ftate. Did I appear to the house of thy father? &c. 1 Sam. ii. 27. xv. 17. Jer. Ezek. xvi. ii. 2, 5, 20, &c. Gal. iii. 1,4 &c. In thefe, and in a thoufand other cafes, contraft is lovely beyond conception, and fcripture abounds with it. Contrafts may be taken from perfon, What God hath clean fed, call not thou [homuncio] common, Acts x. 15. -from place, Pafs over the ifles, fend unto Kedar, and fee, hath a nation changed their idols: but my people [in Judea] have changed their glory. Jer. ii. 10, 11.from time-relation-&c. &c. against the conftancy and joy of the martyrs, who flew to martyrdom as to a victory. This contrariety of emotions is accounted for by the difference of the perfons. Jefus Chrift was the mediator of men towards God, bearing their fins, and engaging with the eternal juftice of his father: but the martyrs were believers, reconciled to God, fighting under Chrift's banner, and as mystical foldiers maintaining his righteous claims. One was filled with a fenfe of God's wrath against men: the others were filled with a fenfe of his love. Chrift met death as an armed enemy; and as one who, till that time, had a right to triumph over mankind: but martyrs approached him as a vanquifhed enemy, or rather as an enemy reconciled, who having changed his nature was become favourable to men. In one word Jesus Christ was at war with death: whereas death was at peace and in friendship with the martyrs. (9) Contraft is faid to lead to the curt, fententious ftyle. The book of proverbs abounds with examples: but unless the contraft be quite clear, the ftyle will become obfcure by contraft. Some contrafts must be explained. Thus, I would thou wert cold or hot. Rev. iii. 15. The doctrine of this paffage is, as one obferves, that "vice mixed with virtue is more dangerous to fociety than vice alone." He explains this paffage, then, by Lev. xiii. The man free from leprofy, and the man all leprous might go about freely, The first could not infect, the In laft would be avoided: but he, who had a spreading le profy to all appearance, and who yet had fome favourable fymptoms, muft be confined, left he fhould communicate infection. The text, then, fpeaks of three forts of men, the zealous, the profane, and the lukewarm. These must be contrafted in order to prove the laft the most dangerous minifter in the church." Gilbert Abbas ferm. 32. ap. Eman. Thefaur. de fac. "Lev. concion. (9) Contraft the death of Chrift with the deaths of martyrs. Many of our divines urge this argument with great |