and poison in thy stomach: therefore let us come again and ask Solomon in good sooth, whether he meaneth in good earnest, when he spake these words: "O (saith Solomon) it is the best life in the world to go brave, lie soft, and live merrily, if there were no judgment." But this judgment mars all, it is the damp that puts out all the light, and like a box that marreth all the ointment for if this be true, we have spun a fair thread, that we must answer for all, that are not able to answer for one: why Solomon maketh us fools, and giveth us gauds to play withal: what then, shall we not rejoice at all? Yes, there is godly mirth, and if we could hit on it, which is called, Be merry and wise. Sarah laughed, and was reproved: Abraham laughed, and was not reproved. And thus much for the first part.

"But remember, for all these things thou shalt come to judgment."

This verse is as it were a dialogue betwixt the flesh and the spirit, as two counsellors, the worst is first, and the flesh speaketh proudly, but the spirit comes in burdened with that which hath been spoken. The flesh goeth laughing and singing to hell : but the spirit casteth rubs in his way, and puts him in mind of judgment, that for all these things now ends rejoice; and here comes in but if this but were not, we might rejoice still: if young men must for all the sports of youth, what then shall old men do, being as they are now? Surely, if Solomon lived to see our old men live now, as here he saith of young men so high as sin rageth, yet vengeance sits above it, as high as high Babel.

Methinks I see a sword hang in the air by a twine thread, and all the sons of men labour to burst it in sunder. There is a place in hell where the covetous judge sitteth, the greedy lawyer, the griping landlord, the careless bishop, the lusty youth, the wanton dames, the thief, the robbers of the Commonwealth, they are punished in this life, because they ever sinned as long as they could, while mercy was offered unto them: therefore, because they would not be washed, they shall be drowned. Now put together rejoice and remember: thou hast learned to be merry, now learn to be wise: now therefore turn over a new leaf, and take a new lesson, for now Solomon mocked not as he did before, therefore a check to thy ruffs, a check to thy cuffs, a check to thy robes, a check to thy gold, a check to your riches, a check to your beauty, a check to your muck, a check to your graves: woe from above, woe from below, woe unto all the strings of vanity: doest thou not now marvel, that thou hast not a feeling of sin? For thou now seest Solomon saith true, thine own heart can tell that it is wicked, but it cannot amend:

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therefore, it is high time to amend. As Nathan cometh to David after Beelzebub, so cometh accusing conscience after sin. Methinks that every one should have a feeling of sin though this day be like yesterday, and to-morrow like to-day, yet one day will come for all, and then woe, woe, woe, and nothing but darkness; and though God came not to Adam until the evening, yet He came; although the fire came not upon Sodom until evening, yet it came: and so comes the judge, although he be not yet come, though he have leaden feet, he hath iron hands, the arrow slayeth and is not yet fallen; so is his wrath: the pit is digged, the fire kindled, and all things are made ready and prepared against the day, only the final sentence is to come, which will not long tarry.

You may not think to be like the thief that stealeth, and is not seen; nothing can be hid from Him, and the judge followeth thee at thy heels: and therefore whatsoever thou art, look about thee, and do nothing but that thou wouldest do openly, for all things are opened unto Him: Sarah may not think to laugh, and not be seen: Gehazi may not think to lie, and not be known: they that will not come to the banquet, must stand at the door.

What? do you think that God doth not remember our sins, which we do not regard for while we sin, the score runs on, and the judge setteth down all in the table of remembrance, and his scroll reacheth up to heaven.

Item, for lending to usury; item, for racking of rents; item, for deceiving thy brethren; item, for falsehood in wares; item, for starching thy ruffs; item, for curling thy hair; item, for painting thy face; item, for selling of benefices; item, for starving of souls; item, for playing at cards; item, for sleeping in the church; item, for profaning the Sabbath-day: with a number more hath God to call to account, for every one must answer for himself. The fornicator, for taking of filthy pleasure: O son, remember thou hast taken thy pleasure, take thy punishment. The careless prelate, for murdering so many thousand souls. The landlord, for getting money from his poor tenants by racking of his rents. See the rest, all they shall come like a very sheep, when the trumpet shall sound, and the heaven and earth shall come to judgment against them, when the heavens shall vanish like a scroll, and the earth shall consume like fire, and all the creatures standing against them: the rocks. shall cleave asunder, and the mountains shake, and the foundation of the earth shall tremble. And they shall say to the mountains, Cover us, fall upon us, and hide us from the presence of his anger and wrath, whom we have not cared for to offend.

But they shall not be covered and hid: but then they shall go the black-way, to the snakes and serpents, to be tormented of devils for ever. O pain unspeakable: and yet the more I express it, the more horrible it is: when you think of torment passing all torments, and yet a torment passing all that: yet this torment is greater than they, and passing them all.

Imagine you see a sinner going to hell, and his sumner gape at him, his acquaintance look at him, the angels shout at him, and the saints laugh at him, and the devils rail at him, and many look him in the face, and they that said, they would live and die with him, forsake him, and leave him to pay all the score. Then Judas would restore his bribes: Esau would cast up his pottage: Achan would cast down his gold: and Gehazi would refuse his gifts: Nebuchadnezzar would be humbler: Balaam would be faithful, and the prodigal would be tame.

Methinks I see Achan running about, Where shall I hide my gold that I have stolen, that it might not be seen, nor stand to appear for a witness against me?

And Judas running to the high priests, saying, Hold, take again your money, I will none of it, I have betrayed the innocent blood.

And Esau crying for the blessing when it is too late, having sold his birthright for a mess of pottage.

Woe, woe, woe that ever we were born. O where is that Dives that would believe this, before he felt the fire in hell, or that would believe the poorest Lazarus in the world to be better than himself, before the dreadful day comes when they cannot help it, if they would never so fain, when repentance is too late. Herod shall then wish that he were John Baptist; Pharaoh would wish that he were Moses; and Saul would wish that he had been David; Nebuchadnezzar, that he had been Daniel; Haman to have been Mardocheus; Esau would wish to be Jacob, and Balaam would wish he might die the death of the righteous. Then he would say, I will give more than Ezechias; cry more than Esau; fast more than Moses; pray more than Daniel; weep more than Mary Magdalen; suffer more stripes than Paul; abide more imprisonments than Michai; abide more cruelty than any mortal man would do, that it might be, "Ite," "Go" ye cursed, might be, Come ye blessed. Yea, I would give all the goods in the world, that I might escape this dreadful day of wrath and judgment, and that I might not stand among the "Go." O that I might live a beggar all my life, and a leper: O that I might endure all plagues and sores from the top of the head to the sole of the foot, sustain all sickness and griefs, that I might escape this judgment.

The guilty conscience cannot abide this day. The silly sheep when she is taken will not bleat, but you may carry her and do what you will with her, and she will be subject. But the swine, if she be once taken, she will roar and cry, and thinks she is never taken, but to be slain. So of all things, the guilty conscience cannot abide to hear of this day, for they know that when they hear of it, they hear of their own condemnation. I think if there were a general collection made through the whole world, that there might be no judgment-day, then God would be so rich, that the world would go a begging, and be as a waste wilderness. Then the covetous judge would bring forth his bribes; then the crafty lawyer would fetch out his bags; the usurer would give his gain; and the idle servant would dig up his talent again, and make a double thereof. But all the money in the world will not serve for our sius; but the judge must answer for his bribes, he that hath money, must answer how he came by it, and just condemnation must come upon every of them: then shall the sinner be ever dying, and never dead; like the salamander, that is ever in the fire and never consumed.

But if you come there, you may say as the Queen of Sheba said of King Solomon, I believed the report that I heard of thee in mine own country, but the one half of thy wisdom was not told me. If you come there, to see what is done, you may say, Now I believe the report that was told me in my own country concerning this place, but the one half as now I feel, I have not heard of. Now choose you whether you will rejoice, or remember; whether you will stand amongst you blessed, or amongst you cursed; whether you will enter while the gate is open, or knock in vain when the gate is shut; whether you will seek the Lord whilst He may be found, or be found of Him when you would not be sought, being run into the bushes with Adam to hide yourselves; whether you will take your heaven now here, or your hell then there; or through tribulation, to enter into the kingdom of God, and thus to take your hell now here, or your heaven then there in the life to come, with the blessed saints and angels; so that hereafter, you may lead a new life, putting on Jesus Christ and His righteousness.

EXEGESIS OF DIFFICULT TEXTS.

Use of Teovela in St. Paul's Epistles.

THERE has been a good deal of controversy of late as to the use made by St. Paul of the word λeoveğia, and the adequacy or inadequacy of the usual English translation "covetousness." But the dispute has generally lain between the alternatives of "covetousness" and "sensuality," neither of which, in the proper senses of the words, appears to us suitable or even possible. In the first place, as regards the translation "covetousness," on turning to the tenth commandment in the LXX., we do not find it to be οὐ πλεονεκτήσεις, but οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις, and thus it is quoted by St. Paul in Rom. vii. 7, and xiii. 9. Indeed Tλeoveţia must necessarily mean a good deal more than covetousness.' The tenth commandment was intended to repress the tendency to let the mind dwell on the desirable possessions of another, lest the cherished thought should break forth into the overt act. This is properly expressed by οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις, whereas οὐ πλεονεκτήσεις would imply, Thou shalt not have or claim more than thy due; Thou shalt not take [unfair] advantage of another; Thou shalt not overreach another. Thus Teoveğia would naturally mean "grasping, greediness," or "rapacity," "overreachingness," not covetousness in the sense of the tenth commandment.

In the second place, it is an error to consider the seventh commandment as primarily directed against the sin of uncleanness or sensuality; a sin, which St. Paul in 1 Cor. vi. 18, declares to be a sin against a man's own body. Like the other commandments of the second table, it prohibits a sin against the neighbour, namely, adultery with his wife. Even our Lord's extension of the seventh commandment in the sermon on the mount does not appear to have any reference, except secondarily, by implication, to the sin of "sensuality" as such. His words are: "Ye have heard that it was said: Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that every one that looks at a woman (yuvaîka, evidently a married woman, for unmarried women do not appear to have enjoyed much liberty in Palestine any more than in Greece), "with a view to desire her (evμeîv), hath already committed adultery with her in his heart;" and the primary intent of the words, surely, is to shew that the sin of adultery can be committed by a mental as well as by a bodily act. Thus if the word πλcoveğía be applicable to adultery at all, it must be applicable to it exclusively of any idea of "sensuality." It may also be observed that the word used by our

NEW SERIES.-VOL. V., NO. IX.

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