324 THE ABSOLUTE SOVEREÌGNTY OF CHRIST. he will say, " Inasmuch as ye did it to one of these little ones, ye did it unto me ?" Remember, therefore, when a fee is offered you against the innocent, that it is a fee against Christ; and Judas's gain will be loss in the end, and will be too hot to hold long: you will be glad to bring it back, and glad if you could be well short of it, and cry, ' I have sinned in betraying the cause of the innocent.' Say not it is our calling that we must live upon. If any man of you dare upon such grounds plead a cause against his conscience, ifhis conscience do not plead it again mole sharply against him, say I am a false prophet. If any, therefore, shall say of you, as the cardinals of Luther, ' Cur homini os non obstruitis auro, et argento,' let the same answer serve turn' pecuniam, non curat,' &c. If any honorable or worshipful friend must be pleasured, inquire first whether he be a better friend than Christ. Tell him the cause is Christ's, andyou cannot befriend him, except he procure you a dispensation from him. When Pompey saw his soldiers ready to fly, he lay down in the passage, and told them they should tread upon him then; which stopped their flight. So suppose, every time you are drawn in to oppose a just cause, that you saw Christ saying, ' Thoumust trample upon me, if thou do this.' As Luther to Melancthon,' Ne causa f dei sit sine fide,' so say Ito you all, ' Ne cama justitice sit sine justitid. When you begin to be cold in a good cause, suppose you sawChrist showing you his scars, as the soldier did to Cæsar,when he desired him to plead his cause ; ' See here, I have done more than plead for you: We have had those that have had a tongue for a fee or a friend, but none for Christ; but God bath now, therefore, shut their mouths, and we may say of them, as Granius by his bad lawyer, when he heard him grown hoarse, ' If they had not lost their voices, we had lost our cause.' To conclude, remember, all of you, that there is an' appeal from these earthly judgments ; these causes must all be heard again, your witnesses re-examined, your oaths, pleadings, and sentences reviewed, and then, as Lampridius saith of Alexander Severns, that he would vomit choler if he saw a corrupt judge, so will Christ vomit wrath, and vomit you out in wrath from his presence, if corrupt. Therefore, " kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish," &c: I-amsensible how I have encroached on your great affairs. . Melancthon was wont to tell of a priest that begun his sermon thus, ' Scio quod ves non libenter auditis, et ego non libenterconcionor, non diu igitur vos teneam.' But I may say contrary. I -am persuaded that you hear witha good will, and I am certain that I preachwillingly, and therefore I was bold to hold you the longer.
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