Let no man therefore despair ; nor, as I said before, let us not despair of the conversion of those that are savages in other parts. How bad soever they be, they are of the world, and if the gospel be preached to them, Christ will be ' believed on in the world.' Christ's almighty power goeth with his own ordinance to make it effectual. Since the coming of Christ, the world lies before Christ, as beloved of him, some in all nations. The gospel is like the sea : what it loseth in one place it gaineth in another. So the truth of God, if it lose in one part — if it be not respected — it gets in another, till it have gone over the whole world.
And when the fulness of the Gentiles is come in, then comes the conver- sion of the Jews. Why may we not expect it ? They were the people of God. We see Christ ' believed on in the world,' We may therefore expect that they shall also be called, there being many of them, and keeping their nation distinct from others.
Now, I shall shew how this is a mystery. ' Great is the mystery of godliness, Christ believed on in the world.' This is a great mystery to join these together : 'the world ' and ' believing.' It is almost as great a mys- tery as to join God and man together ; a virgin and a mother; to bring an unlDelieving rebellious heart, such as is in the world, and believing together. It is a great mystery in divers considerations.
1. First, If ive consider what the world ivas, an opposite and enemy to Christ ; and under his enemy, being slaves to Satan, being idolaters, in love with their own inventions, which men naturally doat on ; here was the wonder of God's love and mercy, that he should vouchsafe it to such wretches. We may see by St Paul's epistles what kind of people they were before they embraced the gospel. Here was God's wondrous dignation,* that God should shine upon them that ' sat in darkness, and in the shadow of death,' that were abused by Satan at his will. That the world, that is, all sorts of the world, from the highest to the lowest, should at length stoop to the cross of Christ ; that the emperors should lay their crowns at Christ's feet, as Constantine and others— Christ at length subdued the Roman empire itself to the faith ; that the philosophers of the world, that * That is, ' deigning, or condescension.' — G.
518 THE FOUNTAIN OPENED.
wore willy* and loarned, slioiilil at length como to embrace the gospel — for divers of tbo falhors were })hilo.sophcrs before (o) ; that meu of great place, of great parts, and learning, and education, and breeding, should deny all, and cast all prostrate at the feet of Christ ; for these to be overcome by plain preaching ; for meanness to overcome mightiness ; for ignorance to overcome knowledge ; yet, notwithstanding, these great and wise men of the world were overcome by the gospel.
It was a mystery that the world should believe. If we consider, besides their greatness and wisdom, the inward malicious disposition of the world, being in the strong man's possession, for these men to believe the gospel, surely it must needs be a great mystery.
2. Again, if we consider the parties! that carried the gospel, whereby the world was subdued — a company of weak ra^n, unlearned men, none of the deepest for knowledge, only they had the Holy Ghost to teach and instruct, to strengthen and fortify them, — which the world took no notice of, — men of mean condition, of mean esteem, and few in number : and these men they came not with weapons, or outward defence, but merely with the word, and with sufferings. Their weapons were nothing but patience, and preaching, offering the word of Christ to them, and suffering indignities ; as St Austin saith, ' The world was not overcome by fighting, but by suffering' {ji)- So the lambs overcame the lions, the doves overcame the birds of prey, the sheep overcame the wolves. ' I send you,' saith Christ, ' as sheep among wolves ; ' and how ? By nothing but by canying a message, and suffering constantly and undauntedly for going with their message ; for they had cruel bloody laws made against them, that were executed to the utmost ; yet by these means they overcame by preaching, and sealing the truth that they taught by suffering — a strange kind of conquest. The Turks conquer to their religion, but it is by violent means ; it is a religion of blood. But here, as I said, meanness overcame greatness, ignorance overcame learning, simplicity overcame pride, baseness overcame glory ; a mystery in this respect.
3. Again, If we consider the truth that they taught, being contrary to the nature of man, contrary to his affections ; to enforce self-denial to men that naturally are full of self-love, that make an idol of their wit and will ; for them to come to be taught to be fools, in I'espect of wdt, and to resign up their wills to the will of another — for these men to believe things that are above belief to carnal men, as St Austin observes, it was the wonder of the world ((/). "What a kind of doctrine was this, to win such entertainment in the world as it did ! Yet it did make men deny themselves, deny their wits, their wills, their goods, their lives. Therefore in this respect it was a gi-eat mystery that Christ should be ' believed on in the world.'