a thousand hells,

short of this one

were there so many, comes far voice, to be turned out of God's " "I know you not."

presence with a Non novi vos,'

Ah! young man, thou wert better ten thousand times be cast out of the thoughts and hearts of thy carnal friends and relations, than to be cast out of God's presence with cursed Cain for ever, than to be excommunicated out of the general assembly of the saints, and congregation of the first-born, which are written in heaven; and, therefore, away with this objection.

3. The favour and friendship of such carnal persons is very fickle and inconstant, it is very fading and withering. Now they stroke, and anon they strike; now they lift up, and anon they cast down; now they smile, and anon they frown; now they kiss, and anon they kill; now they cry, "Hosanna, hosanna!" and anon they cry, "Crucify him, crucify him!" Haman is one day feasted with the king, and the next day made a feast for crows; the princes of Babylon were highly in Darius's favour one day, and cast into the lion's den the next; the Scribes and Pharisees that cried up Judas one day, did, in effect, bid him go and hang himself the next.

Such men's favours and friendship are as Venice glasses, quickly broken, and therefore not much to be prized or minded. History abounds with instances of this nature; but I must hasten, only remembering this, that every day's experience tells us, that wicked

men can soon turn tables, and cross their books; their favour and friendship is usually like to a morning cloud, or like to Jonah's gourd, one hour flourishing, and the next hour withering; and why then shouldest thou set thy heart upon that which is more changeable than the moon?

4. And lastly, Who but a madman would adventure the loss of the king's favour to gain the favour of his page? Who but a stark bedlamite would run the hazard of losing the judge's favour upon the bench, to purchase the good will of the prisoner at the bar?

Socrates preferred the king's countenance before his coin; and so must thou prefer the favour of God, the countenance of Christ, and the things of eternity, above all the favour and friendship of all the men in the world. When thy nearest friends and dearest relations stand in competition with Christ, or the things above, thou must shake them off; thou must turn thy back upon them, and welcome Christ and the things of thy peace. He that forsakes all relations for Christ shall certainly find all relations in Christ; He will be Father, Friend, Husband, Child; He will be everything to thee who takest Him for thy great All.

III. Ay, but I shall meet with many reproaches from one and another, if I should labour to be good betimes, if I should seek and serve the Lord in the spring and morning of my youth.

To this I answer,

1. What are reproaches to the great things that others have suffered for Christ, His gospel, and the maintaining of a good conscience? What is the prick of a pin to a stab at the heart? What is a chiding to a hanging, a whipping to a burning? No more all the reproaches thou canst meet with, to the great things that others have suffered for Christ's sake.

Ah! young men, you should be like the Scythian, that went naked in the snow, and when Alexander wondered how he could endure it, answered, "I am not ashamed, for I am all forehead." So should you, in the cause and way of Christ. You should not be ashamed, you should be all forehead, you should be stout and bold.

Colonus, the Dutch martyr, under all his reproaches, called to the judge that had sentenced him to death, and desired him to lay his hand upon his heart, and then asked him whose heart did most beat, his or the judge's. All the reproaches in the world should not so much as make a Christian's heart beat, they should not in the least trouble him nor disturb him.

2. I answer, that all the reproaches thou meetest with in the way of Christ, and for the sake of Christ, do but add pearls to thy crown, they are all additions to thy happiness and blessedness.

"If ye be reproached for the name of Christ,

happy are ye; for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part He is evil spoken of, but on your part He is glorified," 1 Pet. iv. 14. The more you are reproached for Christ's sake on earth, the greater shall be your reward in heaven: they that are most loaded with reproaches here, shall be most loaded with glory hereafter. Christ hath written their names in golden letters in His Book of Life, that are written in black letters of reproach for His sake on earth. It was a good saying of one, "A reproacher," saith he, "is beneath a man, but the reproached, that bear it well, are equal to angels." Of all crowns, the reproached man's crown will weigh heaviest in heaven.

3. I answer, The best men have been most reproached; David was: Psal. xxxi. 11; xlii. 10; lxxxix. 50; cix. 25; and cxix. 22. And Job was: Job xix. 5, and xx. 3. And Jeremiah was: Jer. xx. 7, 10. Yea, this hath been the common portion of God's people in all ages of the world. In Nehemiah's time it was so: Neh. i. 3, "And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity are in great affliction and reproach." In David's time it was so: Psal. xliv. 13, 14, and lxxix. 4. And in Jeremiah's time it was so: Lam. v. 1, "Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us: consider, and behold our reproach." And in Daniel's time it was so: Dan. ix. 16, “Thy people are become a reproach to all that are about us." And so it was in the

apostles' time: Rom. iii. 8, "And not rather, (as we be slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say,) Let us do evil, that good may come? whose damnation is just." 2 Cor. vi. 8, "By honour and dishonour, by evil report and good report: as deceivers, and yet true." So in that, 1 Tim. iv. 10,

For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God." So was Joseph, Mephibosheth, Naboth, and, in latter times, Luther, who, they said, died despairing, when he was alive to confute it; and that Beza ran away with another man's wife; and that Calvin was branded on the shoulder for a rogue.

But there would be no end

of these, if I said all that might be said.

And it was so in the primitive times; for when the Christians met together before the sun to pray, the heathens reported of them, that they worshipped the sun, and aspired after monarchy, and committed adulteries and unnatural uncleanness. Now, who is troubled, who complains of that which is a common lot, as cold, winter, sickness, death? No more should any complain of reproaches, it being the common lot of God's people in all ages; yea, Christ himself was sadly reproached, falsely accused, and strangely traduced, disgraced, and scandalized; He was called a glutton, a drunkard, a friend of publicans and sinners, and judged to use the black art, casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. Christ hath suffered the greatest and worst re