what is not considered of consequence enough to be accounted even as a part of the earth?" How limited is the dominion even of the greatest monarch! and what a nothing is the possession of a subject and yet if all the world were ours, a few feet will be sufficient for us at the last.

Is it our honour? Alas! that is none of ours: for honour is in him that gives it, not in him that receives it. If our inferiors are disrespectful and uncivil, where is our honour? and, when we have it, what is it but a breath, as empty as it is unsatisfying? Ye great ones of the earth! before whom thousands bow the head and bend the knee; let the hand of God but touch you with a fever; alas ! what ease is it to you, that you are laid on a silken bed, and that your medicine is presented to you in a golden cup?

Lastly, is it beauty? and what is beauty? wherein does it consist but in opinion? where is the face that pleases all? even in the plainest, there are eyes that discover something fair; and even in the fairest there are features with which the eyes of others are not pleased. But grant that it be perfect; what is it but a blossom in May, or a flower in August-soon fallen, soon withered? Well, therefore, may we ask with the son of Sirach, Why is earth and ashes proud? even though it were as free from sin as it is from perfection. But now, when wickedness is added to vanity, and we have rendered ourselves more abominable by sin than we are weak

by nature, how utterly should we be ashamed to look up to heaven, or even to look upon our own faces!

Too easily are we all inclined to cherish the conceit of our spiritual beauty, of the innocence and integrity of our hearts. But let the mirror of the law be brought and set before us, we then shall see how foul are the spots and wrinkles of our souls ; and shall say, with the Prophet, We lie down in our shame, and our confusion covereth us; for we have sinned against the Lord our God. Thus if we be humbled in spirit, we shall be raised unto honour, even such honour as have all his saints. To the participation of which, may that God, whọ hath ordained, graciously bring us, for the sake of Jesus Christ the righteous; to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, one infininite God, be all honour and glory now and for ever.

SERMON XIV.

FROM BROWNRIGG *.

FOR EASTER DAY.

JOHN Xii. 24.

Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth not: but, if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

THESE words were spoken by our blessed Lord in reference to certain Greeks, who, having heard of the fame of Jesus, solicited of the Apostles that they might be admitted to his presence. He rejected not their suit; but yielded to it as a sign and prefiguration of the calling and conversion of the Gentiles, so soon to be accomplished by his death and

resurrection.

The allusion is obvious. Corn unsown, we all know, never multiplies nor increases. But, bury it in the earth, cast it into the furrows, and it springs up and brings forth abundantly. So, had Christ

* Ralph Brownrigg, Bishop of Exeter, was born 1592 and died 1659.

been incarnate only, and lived amongst us, he had not gained so much glory to himself, he had not brought so much benefit to mankind. But his sufferings and passion, his death and burial, it was these that brought a plentiful increase of exaltation to himself, and salvation to the world.

The first thing that I shall notice in the text is, that our Saviour terms himself a grain of wheat, And the similitude is most strikingly suited to him. The plowman, says Isaiah, doth he not cast in the PRINCIPAL wheat? and such was our blessed Saviour. Pure as the purest grain that is cleansed and winnowed from the chaff, no defilement came near him; no sinful infirmity polluted him. Satan did sift and winnow him (first by temptation, then by affliction) but all in vain. The prince of this world cometh, says Christ, and hath nothing in me. An unconverted sinner is as tares, and even a saint is not fully severed from the chaff: but Christ was holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners.

In a grain of wheat there is a terrestrial and earthy part, which rots and corrupts in the ground; and there is a more vigorous and living part, that puts itself forth, and springs from the ground again. And so it was with Christ. His humanity suffered and decayed, and was made subject to death: but, by virtue of his divinity, he revived, and rose again, and sprang up plenteously. According to the flesh, he was of the seed of David; but by the resurrection from the dead he manifested

himself to be the Son of God. It was his humanity that suffered and was crucified it was his divinity that raised him from the dead. According to his humanity, he was a slaughtered lamb: but, according to his divinity, he was a victorious lion. He was the lamb of God, and the Son of God. The concurrence of both was prefigured in the law. To the purging of a leper, both a dead bird, and a living bird, were to be offered. The dead bird betokened his passion; but the living bird, which was suffered to fly away, betokened his resurrection.

He is also represented to us as the bread of life. And, till we obtain this blessed food, we feed only on empty husks, that cannot nourish us. Christ is the staff of bread, and the strength of our life, And thus, we find, he compares himself to those two fruitful plants that most conduce to our strength and nourishment; the vine, for drink; and wheat, for food. Wine, that maketh glad the heart of man... and bread, which strengtheneth man's heart... Christ becomes both to us. Nay, they are not only similitudes, but raised to be mysterious sacraments, effectual conveyances of our spiritual nourishment. This grain of wheat was bruised and broken with the flail of affliction, and ground to dust, and baked and made bread in the furnace of his passion. This fruitful grape, this goodly bunch of Eschol, was put into the wine-press of God's wrath, and the blood of it crushed out by the weight and burden of our iniquities. And yet in these we