rights Questionless this gracious Saint would not for all the world have willingly preferred her own attendence to that of her God through heedlesness she doeth so Her Son and Saviour is her monitour out of his Divine love reforming her natural How is it that ye sought me Know ye not that I must go about my Fathers business Immediately before the Blessed Virgin had said Thy Father I sought thee with heavy hearts Wherein both according to the supposition of the world she calleth Joseph the Father of Christ and according to the fashion of a dutifull wife she names her Joseph before her self She well knew that Joseph had nothing but a name in this business she knew how God had dignified her beyond him yet she says Thy Father and I sought thee The Son of God stands not upon contradiction to his mother but leading her thoughts from his supposed Father to his true from earth to heaven he answers Knew ye not that I must go about my Fathers business It was honour enough to her that he had vouchsafed to take flesh of her It was his eternall Honour that he was God of God the everlasting Son of the heavenly Father Good reason therefore was it that the respects to flesh should give place to the God of Spirits How well contented was Holy Mary with so just an answer how doth she now again in her heart renew her answer to the Angel Behold the servant of the Lord be it according to thy word We are all the Sons of God in another kind Nature and the World think we should attend them We are not worthy to say we have a Father in Heaven if we cannot steal away from these earthly distractions and imploy our selves in the services of our God VIII Christ's Baptism JOhn did every way forerun Christ not so much in the time of his Birth as in his Office neither was there more unlikeliness in their disposition and carriage then similitude in their function Both did preach and baptize onely John baptized by himself our Saviour by his Disciples Our Saviour wrought miracles by himself by his Disciples John wrought none by either Wherein Christ meant to shew himself a Lord and John a Servant and John meant to approve himself a true Servant to him whose Harbinger he was He that leapt in the womb of his mother when his Saviour then newly conceived came in presence bestir'd himself when he was brought forth into the light of the Church to the honour and service of his Saviour He did the same before Christ which Christ charged his Disciples to doe after him preach and baptize The Gospel ran always in one tenour and was never but like it self So it became the Word of him in whom there is no shadow by turning and whose Word it is I am Jehova I change not It was fit that he which had the Prophets the Star the Angel to foretell his coming into the world should have his Usher to go before him when he would notifie himself to the world John was the Voice of a Cryer Christ was the Word of his Father It was fit this Voice should make a noise to the world ere the Word of the Father should speak to it John's note was still Repentance the Axe to the root the Fan to the floor the Chaffe to the fire as his Raiment was rough so was his Tongue and if his Food were wild Hony his Speech was stinging Locusts Thus must the way be made for Christ in every heart Plausibility is no fit preface to Regeneration If the heart of man had continued upright God might have been entertained without contradiction but now violence must be offered to our corruption ere we can have room for Grace If the great Way-maker do not cast down hills and raise up valleys in the bosomes of men there is no passage for Christ Never will Christ come into that Soul where the Herald of Repentance hath not been before him That Saviour of ours who from eternity lay hid in the Counsel of God who in the fulness of time so came that he lay hid in the womb of his mother for the space of forty weeks after he was come thought fit to lie hid in Nazareth for the space of thirty years now at last begins to shew himself to the world and comes from Galilee to Jordan He that was God always and might have been perfect Man in an instant would by degrees rise to the perfection both of his Manhood and execution of his Mediatourship to teach us the necessity of leisure in spiritual proceedings that many Suns and successions of seasons and means must be stayed for ere we can attain our maturity and that when we are ripe for the imployments of God we should no less willingly leave our obscurity then we took the benefit of it for our preparation He that was formerly circumcised would now be baptized What is Baptism but an Evangelical Circumcision What was Circumcision but a legal Baptism One both supplied and succeeded the other yet the Authour of both will undergo both He would be circumcised to sanctifie his Church that was and baptized to sanctifie his Church that should be that so in both Testaments he might open a way into Heaven There was in him neither filthiness nor foreskin of corruption that should need either knife or water He came not to be a Saviour for himself but for us We are all uncleanness and uncircumcision He would therefore have that done to his most pure Body which should be of force to clear our impure Souls thus making himself sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him His Baptism gives virtue to ours His last action or rather passion was his Baptizing with bloud his first was his Baptization with water both of them wash the world from their sins Yea this latter did not onely wash the souls of men but washeth that very water by which we are washed from hence is that made both clean and holy and can both cleanse and hallow us And if the very Handkerchief which touched his Apostles had power of cure how much more that Water which the sacred body of Christ touched Christ comes far to seek his Baptism to teach us for whose sake he was baptized to wait upon the Ordinances of God and to sue for the favour of spiritual blessings They are worthless commodities that are not worth seeking for It is rarely seen that God is found of any man unsought for That desire which onely makes us capable of good things cannot stand with neglect John durst not baptize unbidden his Master sent him to do this service and behold the Master comes to his Servant to call for the participation of that priviledge which he himself had instituted and injoyned How willingly should we come to our spiritual Superious for our part in those mysteries which God hath left in their keeping yea how gladly should we come to
insolent reproaches indignities tortures arr thou entring into To an ingenuous and tender disposition scorns are torment enough but here pain helps to perfect thy misery their despight Who should be actours in this whole bloudy execution but grim and barbarous Souldiers men inured to cruelty in whose faces were written the characters of Murther whose very trade was killing and whose looks were enough to prevent their hands These for the greater terrour of their concourse are called together and whether by the connivence or the command of their wicked Governour or by the instigation of the malicious Jews conspire to anticipate his death with scorns which they will after inflict with violence O my Blessed Saviour was it not enough that thy Sacred Body was stripped of thy garments and waled with bloudy stripes but that thy Person must be made the mocking-stock of thine insulting enemies thy Back disguised with purple robes thy Temples wounded with a thorny Crown thy Face spat upon thy Cheeks buffetted thy Head smitten thy Hand sceptred with a reed thy Self derided with wry mouths bended knees scoffing acclamations Insolent Souldiers whence is all this jeering and sport but to flout Majesty All these are the ornaments and ceremonies of a Royall Inauguration which now in scorn ye cast upon my despised Saviour Goe on make your selves merry with this jolly pastime Alas long agoe ye now feel whom ye scorned Is he a King think you whom ye thus play'd upon Look upon him with gnashing and horrour whom ye look'd at with mockage and insultation Was not that Head fit for your Thorns which you now see crowned with Glory and Majesty Was not that Hand fit for a Reed whose iron Scepter crushes you to death Was not that Face fit to be spat upon from the dreadfull aspect whereof ye are ready to desire the mountains to cover you In the mean time whither O whither dost thou stoop O thou coeternal Son of thine eternal Father whither dost thou abase thy self for me I have sinned and thou art punished I have exalted my self and thou art dejected I have clad my self with shame and thou art stripped I have made my self naked and thou art cloathed with robes of dishonour my head hath devised evil and thine is pierced with thorns I have smitten thee and thou art smitten for me I have dishonoured thee and thou for my sake art scorned thou art made the sport of men for me that have deserved to be insulted on by Devils Thus disguised thus bleeding thus mangled thus deformed art thou brought forth whether for compassion or for a more universall derision to the furious multitude with an Ecce homo Behold the man look upon him O ye merciless Jews see him in his shame in his wounds and bloud and now see whether ye think him miserable enough Ye see his Face blew and black with buffeting his Eyes swoln his Cheeks beslabbered with spittle his Skin torn with scourges his whole Body bathed in bloud and would ye yet have more Behold the man the man whom ye envied for his greatness whom ye feared for his usurpation Doth he not look like a King is he not royally dressed See whether his magnificence do not command reverence from you Would ye wish a finer King Are ye not afraid he will wrest the Scepter out of Caesar's hand Behold the man Yea and behold him well O thou proud Pilate O ye cruel Souldiers O ye insatiable Jews Ye see him base whom ye shall see glorious the time shall surely come wherein ye shall see him in another dress he shall shine whom ye now see to bleed his Crown cannot be now so ignominious and painfull as it shall be once majestical and precious ye who now bend your knees to him in scorn shall see all knees both in Heaven and in earth and under the earth to bow before him in an awfull adoration ye that now see him with contempt shall behold him with horrour What an inward war do I yet find in the breast of Pilate His Conscience bids him spare his Popularity bids him kill His Wife warned by a Dream warns him to have no hand in the bloud of that just man the importunate multitude presses him for a sentence of death All shifts have been tried to free the man whom he hath pronounced innocent All violent motives are urged to condemn that man whom malice pretends guilty In the height of this strife when Conscience and moral Justice were ready to sway Pilate's distracted heart to a just dismission I hear the Jews cry out If thou let this man goe thou art not Caesar's friend There is the word that strikes it dead it is now no time to demur any more In vain shall we hope that a carnal heart can prefer the care of his Soul to the care of his safety and honour God to Caesar Now Jesus must die Pilate hasts into the Judgment-hall the Sentence sticks no longer in his teeth Let him be crucified Yet how foul so ever his Soul shall be with this fact his hands shall be clean He took water and washed his hands before the multitude saying I am innocent of the bloud of this just person see ye to it Now all is safe I wis this is expiation enough water can wash off bloud the hands can cleanse the heart protest thou art innocent and thou canst not be guilty Vain Hypocrite canst thou think to scape so Is Murther of no deeper dye Canst thou dream waking thus to avoid the charge of thy wife's dream Is the guilt of the bloud of the Son of God to be wip'd off with such ease What poor shifts do foolish sinners make to beguile themselves Any thing will serve to charm the Conscience when it lists to sleep But Oh Saviour whilst Pilate thinks to wash off the guilt of thy bloud with water I know there is nothing that can wash off the guilt of this his sin but thy bloud Oh do thou wash my Soul in that precious bathe and I shall be clean Oh Pilate if that very bloud which thou sheddest do not wash off the guilt of thy bloudshed thy water doth but more defile thy Soul and intend that fire wherewith thou burnest Little did the desperate Jews know the weight of that bloud which they were so forward to wish upon themselves and their children Had they deprecated their interest in that horrible murther they could not so easily have avoided the vengeance but now that they fetch it upon themselves by a willing execration what should I say but that they long for a curse it is pity they should not be miserable And have ye not now felt O Nation worthy of plagues have ye not now felt what bloud it was whose guilt ye affected Sixteen hundred years are now passed since you wished your selves thus wretched have ye not been ever since the hate and scorn of the world Did ye not live many of you to see your City buried in ashes
us O give me to thirst after those waters which thou promisest what-ever become of those waters which thou wouldst want The time was when craving water of the Samaritan thou gavest better then that thou askedst Oh give me to thirst after that more precious Water and so do thou give me of that water of life that I may never thirst again Blessed God! how marvellously dost thou contrive thine own affairs Thine enemies whilst they would despight thee shall unwittingly justifie thee and convince themselves As thou fore-saidst In thy thirst they gave thee vinegar to drink Had they given thee Wine thou hadst not taken it the night before thou hadst taken leave of that comfortable liquour resolving to drink no more of that sweet juice till thou shouldst drink it new with them in thy Father's Kingdom Had they given thee Water they had not fulfilled that prediction whereby they were self-condemned I know not now O dear Jesu whether this last draught of thine were more pleasing to thee or more distastfull Distastfull in it self for what liquour could be equally harsh pleasing that it made up those Sufferings thou wert to endure and those Prophecies thou wert to fulfill Now there is no more to doe thy full consummation of all predictions of all types and ceremonies of all sufferings of all satisfactions is happily both effected and proclaimed nothing now remains but a voluntary sweet and Heavenly resignation of thy Blessed Soul into the hands of thine eternall Father and a bowing of thine head for the change of a better Crown and a peaceable obdormition in thy bed of ease and honour and an instant entrance into rest triumph Glory And now O Blessed Jesu how easily have carnall eyes all this while mistaken the passages and intentions of this thy last and most glorious work Our weakness could hitherto see nothing here but pain and ignominy now my better-inlightned eyes see in this elevation of thine both honour and happiness Lo thou that art the Mediatour betwixt God and man the Reconciler of Heaven and earth art lift up betwixt earth and Heaven that thou mightest accord both Thou that art the great Captain of our Salvation the conquerour of all the adverse powers of Death and Hell art exalted upon this Triumphall Chariot of the Cross that thou mightest trample upon Death and drag all those Infernall Principalities manicled after thee Those Arms which thine enemies meant violently to extend are stretched forth for the imbracing of all mankind that shall come in for the benefit of thine all-sufficient redemption Even whilst thou sufferest thou reignest Oh the impotent madness of silly men They think to disgrace thee with wrie faces with tongues put out with bitter scoffs with poor wretched indignities when in the mean time the Heavens declare thy righteousness O Lord and the Earth shews forth thy power The Sun pulls in his light as not abiding to see the Sufferings of his Creatour the Earth trembles under the sense of the wrong done to her Maker the Rocks rend the veil of the Temple tears from the top to the bottom shortly all the frame of the world acknowledges the dominion of that Son of God whom Man despised Earth and Hell have done their worst O Saviour thou art in thy Paradise and triumphest over the malice of men and Devils The remainders of thy Sacred person are not yet free The Souldiers have parted thy garments and cast lots upon thy seamless coat Those poor spoils cannot so much inrich them as glorifie thee whose Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions The Jews sue to have thy bones divided but they sue in vain No more could thy garments be whole then thy body could be broken One inviolable Decree over-rules both Foolish executioners ye look up at that crucified Body as if it were altogether in your power and mercy nothing appears to you but impotence and death little do ye know what an irresistible guard there is upon that Sacred corps such as if all the powers of Darkness shall band against they shall find themselves confounded In spite of all the gates of Hell that word shall stand Not a bone of him shall be broken Still the infallible Decree of the Almighty leads you on to his own ends through your own ways Ye saw him already dead whom ye came to dispatch those bones therefore shall be whole which ye had had no power to break But yet that no piece either of your cruelty or of Divine prediction may remain unsatisfied he whose Bones may not be impaired shall be wounded in his flesh he whose Ghost was yielded up must yield his last bloud One of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out bloud and water Malice is wont to end with life here it over-lives it Cruell man what means this so late wound what commission hadst thou for this bloudy act Pilate had given leave to break the bones of the living he gave no leave to goar the side of the dead what wicked superrerogation is this what a superfluity of maliciousness To what purpose did thy spear pierce so many hearts in that one why wouldst thou kill a dead man Methinks the Blessed Virgin and those other passionate associates of hers and the Disciple whom Jesus loved together with the other of his fellows the friends and followers of Christ and especially he that was so ready to draw his sword upon the troup of his Master's apprehenders should have work enough to contain themselves within the bounds of patience at so savage a stroke their sorrow could not chuse but turn to indignation and their hearts could not but rise as even mine doth now at so impertinent a villany How easily could I rave at that rude hand But O God when I look up to thee and consider how thy holy and wise Providence so overrules the most barbarous actions of men that besides their will they turn beneficiall I can at once hate them and bless thee This very wound hath a mouth to speak the Messiah ship of my Saviour and the truth of thy Scripture They shall look at him whom they have pierced Behold now the Second Adam sleeping and out of his side formed the Mother of the living the Evangelicall Church Behold the Rock which was smitten and the waters of life gushed forth Behold the fountain that is set open to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness a fountain not of water onely but of bloud too O Saviour by thy water we are washed by thy bloud we are redeemed Those two Sacraments which thou didst institute alive flow also from thee dead as the last memorialls of thy Love to thy Church the Water of Baptism which is the laver of Regeneration the Bloud of the new Testament shed for remission of sins and these together with the Spirit that gives life to them both are the three Witnesses on earth whose attestation cannot fail us O precious
rather to the Well-head where she may dip and fill the Firkins at once with ease It may be she saw that the Train of Christ which unbidden followed unto that Feast and unexpectedly added to the number of the guests might help forward that defect and therefore she justly solicits her Son Jesus for a supply Whether we want Bread or Water or Wine Necessaries or Comforts whither should we run O Saviour but to that infinite munificence of thine which neither denieth nor upbraideth any thing We cannot want we cannot abound but from thee Give us what thou wilt so thou give us Contentment with what thou givest But what is this I hear A sharp answer to the suit of a Mother O woman what have I to doe with thee He whose sweet mildness and mercy never sent away any suppliant discontented doth he onely frown upon her that bare him He that commands us to honour Father and Mother doth he disdain her whose flesh he took God forbid Love and Duty doth not exempt Parents from due admonition She solicited Christ as a Mother he answers her as a Woman If she were the Mother of his Flesh his Deity was eternal She might not so remember her self to be a Mother that she should forget she was a Woman nor so look upon him as a Son that she should not regard him as a God He was so obedient to her as a Mother that withall she must obey him as her God That part which he took from her shall observe her She must observe that nature which came from above and made her both a Woman and a Mother Matter of miracle concerned the Godhead onely Supernatural things were above the sphere of fleshly relation If now the Blessed Virgin will be prescribing either time or form unto Divine acts O woman what have I to doe with thee my hour is not come In all bodily actions his style was O Mother in spiritual and heavenly O Woman Neither is it for us in the holy affairs of God to know any faces yea if we have known Christ heretofore according to the flesh henceforth know we him so no more O Blessed Virgin if in that heavenly Glory wherein thou art thou canst take notice of these earthly things with what indignation dost thou look upon the presumptuous Superstition of vain men whose suits make thee more then a Solicitour of Divine Favours Thy Humanity is not lost in thy Motherhood nor in thy Glory The respects of Nature reach not so high as Heaven It is far from thee to abide that Honour which is stoln from thy Redeemer There is a Marriage whereto we are invited yea wherein we are already interessed not as the Guests onely but as the Bride in which there shall be no want of the Wine of gladness It is marvel if in these earthly Banquets there be not some lack In thy presence O Saviour there is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. Even in that rough Answer doth the Blessed Virgin descry cause of hope If his hour were not yet come it was therefore coming When the expectation of the guests and the necessity of the occasion had made fit room for the Miracle it shall come forth and challenge their wonder Faithfully therefore and observantly doth she turn her speech from her Son to the Waiters Whatsoever he saith unto you doe it How well doth it beseem the Mother of Christ to agree with his Father in Heaven whose voice from Heaven said This is my wel-beloved Son hear him She that said of her self Be it unto me according to thy word says unto others Whatsoever he saith unto you doe it This is the way to have Miracles wrought in us Obedience to his Word The power of Christ did not stand upon their Officiousness he could have wrought wonders in spite of them but their perverse refusal of his commands might have made them uncapable of the favour of a miraculous action He that can when he will convince the obstinate will not grace the disobedient He that could work without us or against us will not work for us but by us This very poor House was furnished with many and large Vessels for outward purification As if Sin had dwelt upon the skin that superstitious people sought holiness in frequent Washings Even this rinsing fouled them with the uncleanness of a traditional will-worship It is the Soul which needs scowring and nothing can wash that but the Bloud which they desperately wished upon themselves and their children for guilt not for expiation Purge thou us O Lord with hyssop and we shall be clean wash us and we shall be whiter then snow The Waiters could not but think strange of so unseasonable a command Fill the water-pots It is Wine that we want what do we go to fetch Water Doth this Holy man mean thus to quench our feast and cool our stomacks If there be no remedy we could have sought this supply unbidden Yet so far hath the charge of Christ's Mother prevailed that in stead of carrying flagons of Wine to the Table they go to fetch pails-full of Water from the Cisterns It is no pleading of unlikelihoods against the command of an Almighty power He that could have created Wine immediately in those vessels will rather turn Water into Wine In all the course of his Miracles I do never find him making ought of nothing all his great works are grounded upon former existences He multiplied the Bread he changed the Water he restored the withered Lims he raised the Dead and still wrought upon that which was and did not make that which was not What doeth he in the ordinary way of nature but turn the watery juice that arises up from the root into wine He will onely doe this now suddenly and at once which he doeth usually by sensible degrees It is ever duly observed by the Son of God not to doe more Miracles then he needs How liberal are the provisions of Christ If he had turned but one of those vessels it had been a just proof of his power and perhaps that quantity had served the present necessity now he furnisheth them with so much wine as would have served an hundred and fifty guests for an intire feast Even the measure magnifies at once both his power and mercy The munificent hand of God regards not our need onely but our honest affluence It is our sin and our shame if we turn his favour into wantonness There must be first a filling ere there be a drawing out Thus in our vessels the first care must be of our receit the next of our expence God would have us Cisterns not Chanels Our Saviour would not be his own taster but he sends the first draught to the Governour of the feast He knew his own power they did not Neither would he bear witness of himself but fetch it out of
Virgin carried in it any taint of Adam that was scoured away by sanctification in the womb and yet the Son would be circumcised and the Mother purified He that came to be sin for us would in our persons be legally unclean that by satisfying the Law he might take away our uncleanness Though he were exempted from the common condition of our birth yet he would not deliver himself from those ordinary rites that implied the weaknesse and blemishes of Humanity He would fulfill one Law to abrogate it another to satisfie it He that was above the Law would come under the Law to free us from the Law Not a day would be changed either in the Circumcision of Christ or the Purification of Mary Here was neither convenience of place nor of necessaries for so painfull a work in the Stable of Bethlehem yet he that made and gave the Law will rather keep it with difficulty then transgresse it with ease Why wouldest thou O Blessed Saviour suffer that sacred Foreskin to be cut off but that by the power of thy Circumcision the same might be done to our Souls that was done to thy Body We cannot be therefore thine if our hearts be uncircumcised Doe thou that in us which was done to thee for us cut off the superfluitie of our maliciousnesse that we may be holy in and by thee which for us wert content to be legally impure There was shame in thy Birth there was pain in thy Circumcision After a contemptible welcome into the world that a sharp Rasour should passe through thy skin for our sakes which can hardly endure to bleed for our own it was the praise of thy wonderfull mercy in so early Humiliation What pain or contempt should we refuse for thee that hast made no spare of thy self for us Now is Bethlehem left with too much honour there is Christ born adored circumcised No sooner is the Blessed Virgin either able or allowed to walk then she travels to Jerusalem to perform her holy Rites for her self for her Son to purifie her self to present her Son She goes not to her own house at Nazareth she goes to God's House at Jerusalem If Purifying were a shadow yet Thanksgiving is a substance Those whom God hath blessed with fruit of body and safety of deliverance if they make not their first journey to the Temple of God they partake more of the Unthankfullnesse of Eve then Marie's Devotion Her forty days therefore were no sooner out then Mary comes up to the holy City The rumour of a new King born at Bethlehem was yet fresh at Jerusalem since the report of the Wise men and what good news had this been for any pick-thank to carry to the Court Here is the Babe whom the Star signified whom the Sages inquired for whom the Angels proclaimed whom the Shepherds talkt of whom the Scribes and High priests notified whom Herod seeks after Yet unto that Jerusalem which was troubled at the report of his Birth is Christ come and all tongues are so lockt up that he which sent from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to seek him finds him not who as to countermine Herod is come from Bethlehem to Jerusalem Dangers that are aloof off and but possible may not hinder us from the duty of our Devotion God saw it not yet time to let loose the fury of his adversaries whom he holds up like some eager mastives and then onely lets goe when they shall most shame themselves and glorifie him Well might the Blessed Virgin have wrangled with the Law and challenged an immunity from all ceremonies of Purification What should I need purging which did not conceive in sin This is for those mothers whose births are unclean mine is from God which is purity it self The Law of Moses reaches onely to those women which have conceived seed I conceived not this seed but the Holy Ghost in me The Law extends to the mothers of those sons which are under the Law mine is above it But as one that cared more for her peace then her privilege and more desired to be free from offence then from labour and charge she dutifully fulfills the Law of that God whom she carried in her womb and in her arms like the Mother of him who though he knew the children of the Kingdome free yet would pay tribute unto Caesar like the Mother of him whom it behoved to fulfill all righteousnesse And if she were so officious in Ceremonies as not to admit of any excuse in the very Circumstance of her Obedience how much more strict was she in the main Duties of morality That Soul is fit for the Spirituall conception of Christ that is conscioanbly scrupulous in observing all God's Commandments whereas he hates all alliance to a negligent or froward Heart The Law of Purification proclaims our Uncleannesse The mother is not allowed after her child-birth to come unto the Sanctuary or to touch any hallowed thing till her set time be expired What are we whose very birth infects the mother that bears us At last she comes to the Temple but with Sacrifices either a Lamb and a Pigeon or Turtle or in the meaner estate two Turtle-doves or young Pigeons whereof one is for a Burnt-offering the other for a Sin-offering the one for Thanksgiving the other for Expiation for expiation of a double sin of the mother that conceived of the child that was conceived We are all born sinners and it is a just question whether we do more infect the world or the world us They are grosse flatterers of nature that tell her she is clean If our lives had no sin we bring enough with us the very infant that lives not to sin as Adam yet sinned in Adam and is sinfull in himself But oh the unspeakable mercy of our God! we provide the Sin he provides the Remedy Behold an Expiation well-near as early as our Sin the bloud of a young Lamb or Dove yea rather the bloud of Him whose innocence was represented by both cleanseth us presently from our filthinesse First went Circumcision then came the Sacrifice that by two holy acts that which was naturally unholy might be hallowed unto God Under the Gospell our Baptism hath the force of both it does away our corruption by the Water of the Spirit it applies to us the Sacrifice of Christ's Bloud whereby we are cleansed Oh that we could magnifie this goodnesse of our God which hath not left our very infancy without redresse but hath provided helps whereby we may be delivered from the danger of our hereditary evils Such is the favourable respect of our wise God that he would not have us undoe our selves with Devotion the service he requires of us is ruled by our abilities Every poor mother was not able to bring a Lamb for her offering there was none so poor but might procure a pair of Turtles or Pigeons These doth God both prescribe and accept from poorer hands no lesse then the beasts of a thousand
bones of the Sareptan's and Shunamite's sons and in all likelihood had now heard of our Saviour's miraculous resuscitation of others might think this power reflected upon himself Even Herod as bad as he was believed a Resurrection Lewdness of life and practice may stand with orthodoxy in some main points of Religion Who can doubt of this when the Devils believe and tremble Where shall those men appear whose faces are Christian but their hearts Sadducees Oh the terrours and tortures of a guilty heart Herod's Conscience told him he had offered an unjust and cruel violence to an innocent and now he thinks that John's ghost haunts him Had it not been for this guilt of his bosom why might he not as well have thought that the same God whose hand is not shortned had conferred this power of Miracles upon some other Now it could be no body but John that doeth these wonders and how can it be thinks he but that this revived Prophet who doeth these strange things will be revenged on me for his head He that could give himself life can more easily take mine how can I escape the hands of a now-immortal and impassible avenger A wicked man needs no other tormentour especially for the sins of bloud then his own heart Revell O Herod and feast and frolick and please thy self with dances and triumphs and pastimes thy sin shall be as some Fury that shall invisibly follow thee and scourge thy guilty heart with secret lashes and upon all occasions shall begin thine Hell within thee He wanted not other sins that yet cried Deliver me from bloud-guiltiness O God What an honour was done to John in this misprision While that man lived the world was apt to think that John was the Christ now that John is dead Herod thinks Christ to be John God gives to his poor conscionable servants a kind of reverence and high respect even from those men that malign them most so as they cannot but venerate whom they hate Contrarily no wit or power can shield a leud man from contempt John did no Miracle in his life yet now Herod thinks he did miracles in his Resurrection as supposing that a new supernatural life brought with it a supernatural power Who can but wonder at the stupid partiality of Herod and these Jews They can imagine and yield John risen from the dead that never did miracle and arose not whereas Christ who did infinite miracles and arose from the dead by his almighty power is not yielded by them to have risen Their over-bountifull misconceit of the Servant is not so injurious as their niggardly infidelity to the Master Both of them shall convince and confound them before the face of God But O yet more blockish Herod Thy Conscience affrights thee with John's resurrection and flies in thy face for the cruel murther of so great a Saint yet where is thy repentance for so foul a fact Who would not have expected that thou shouldst hereupon have humbled thy self for thy sin and have laboured to make thy peace with God and him The greater the fame and power was of him whom thou supposedst recovered from thy slaughter the more should have been thy penitence Impiety is wont to besot men and turn them senseless of their own safety and welfare One would have thought that our first Grand-sire Adam when he found his heart to strike him for his disobedience should have run to meet God upon his knees and have sued for pardon of his offence In stead of that he runs to hide his head among the bushes The case is still ours we inherit both his sin and his senselesness Besides the infinite displeasure of God wickedness makes the heart uncapable of Grace and impregnable to the means of Conversion Even the very first act of Herod's cruelty was hainous He was foul enough with other sins he added this above all that he shut up John in prison The violence offered to God's messengers is branded for notorious The Sanctity and austere carriage of the man wone him honour justly from the multitude and aggravated the sin but whatever his person had been his mission was sacred He shall send his messenger the wrong redounds to the God that sent him It is the charge of God Touch not mine anointed nor doe my Prophets any harm The precept is perhaps one for even Prophets were anointed but at least next to violation of Majesty is the wrong to a Prophet But what do I not hear the Evangelist say that Herod heard John gladly How is it then Did John take the ear and heart of Herod and doth Herod bind the hands and feet of John Doth he wilfully imprison whom he gladly heard How inconstant is a carnall heart to good resolutions How little trust is to be given to the good motions of unregenerate persons We have known when even mad dogs have fawned upon their master yet he hath been too wise to trust them but in chains As a true friend loves always so a gracious heart always affects good neither can be altered with change of occurrences But the carnal man like an hollow Parasite or a fawning Spaniel flatters onely for his own turn if that be once either served or crossed like a churlish curre he is ready to snatch us by the fingers Is there a worldly-minded man that lives in some known sin yet makes much of the Preacher frequents the Church talks godly looks demurely carries fair trust him not he will prove after his pious fits like some resty horse which goes on some paces readily and eagerly but anon either stands still or falls to flinging and plunging and never leaves till he have cast his rider What then might be the cause of John's bonds and Herod's displeasure For Herodias sake his brother Philip's wife That woman was the subject of Herod's lust and the exciter of his revenge This light huswife ran away with her Husband's brother and now doting upon her incestuous lover and finding John to be a rub in the way of her licentious adultery is impatient of his liberty and will not rest till his restraint Resolved sinners are mad upon their leud courses and run furiously upon their gainsayers A Bear robbed of her whelps is less impetuous Indeed those that have determined to love their sins more then their Souls whom can they care for Though Herod was wicked enough yet had it not been upon Herodias's instigation he had never imprisoned John Importunity of leud solicitours may be of dangerous consequence and many times draws Greatness into those ways which it either would not have thought of or abhorred In the remotion of the wicked is the establishment of the throne Yet still is this Dame called the wife of Philip. She had utterly left his bed and was solemnly coupled to Herod but all the ritual Ceremonies of her new Nuptials cannot make her other then Philip's wife It is a sure rule That which is originally faulty can never be
whether in prison or in exile or at the stake we do not hasten thither to injoy thee The Place was not more unfit then the Time a Pharisee's house was not more unproper for a sinner then a Feast was for humiliation Tears at a Banquet are as Jiggs at a Funeral There is a season for all things Musick had been more apt for a Feast then mourning The heart that hath once felt the sting of sin and the sweetness of remission hath no power to delay the expressions of what it feels and cannot be confined to terms of circumstance Whence then was this zeal of her access Doubtless she had heard from the mouth of Christ in those heavenly Sermons of his many gracious invitations of all troubled and labouring Souls she had observed how he vouchsafed to come under the roofs of despised Publicans of professed enemies she had noted all the passages of his power and mercy and now deep remorse wrought upon her heart for her former viciousness The pool of her Conscience was troubled by the descending Angel and now she steps in for a cure The arrow stuck fast in her Soul which she could not shake out and now she comes to this sovereign Dittany to expell it Had not the Spirit of God wrought upon her ere she came and wrought her to come she had never either sought or found Christ Now she comes in and finds that Saviour whom she sought she comes in but not empty-handed though debauched she was a Jewess She could not but have heard that she ought not to appear before the Lord empty What then brings she It was not possible she could bring to Christ a better present then her own Penitent Soul yet to testifie that she brings another delicate both for the vessell and the contents a box of Alabaster a solid hard pure clear marble fit for the receit of so precious an ointment the ointment pleasant and costly a composition of many fragrant Odours not for medicine but delight The Soul that is truly touched with the sense of its own sin can think nothing too good too dear for Christ The remorsed sinner begins first with the tender of burnt-offerings and calves of a year old thence he ascends to Hecatombs thousands of rams and above that yet to ten thousand rivers of oyl and yet higher could be content to give the first-fruit of his body to expiate the sin of his Soul Any thing every thing is too small a price for peace O Saviour since we have tasted how sweet thou art lo we bring thee the daintiest and costliest perfumes of our humble Obediences yea if so much of our bloud as this woman brought oyntment may be usefull or pleasing to thy name we do most chearfully consecrate it unto thee If we would not have thee think Heaven too good for us why should we stick at any earthly retribution to thee in lieu of thy great mercies Yet here I see more then the price This odoriferous perfume was that wherewith she had wont to make her self pleasing to her wanton Lovers and now she comes purposely to offer it up to her Saviour As her Love was turned another way from sensuall to Divine so shall her Ointment also be altered in the use that which was abused to Luxury shall now be consecrated to Devotion There is no other effect in whatsoever true Conversion As we have given our members servants to iniquity to commit iniquity so shall we now give our members servants unto righteousness in holiness If the dames of Israel that thought nothing more worth looking on then their own faces have spent too much time in their glasses now they shall cast in those metalls to make a Laver for the washing of their uncleannesses If I have spent the prime of my strength the strength of my wit upon my self and vanity I have bestowed my Alabaster-box amiss O now teach me my God and Saviour to improve all my time all my abilities to thy glory This is all the poor recompence can be made thee for those shamefull dishonours thou hast received from me The Woman is come in and now she doth not boldly face Christ but as unworthy of his presence she stands behind How could she in that site wash his feet with her tears Was it that our Saviour did not sit at the Feast after our fashion but according to the then Jewish and Roman fashion lay on the one side Or was it that this phrase doth not so much import posture as presence Doubtless it was bashfulness and shame arising from the conscience of her own former wickedness that placed her thus How well is the case altered She had wont to look boldly in the face of her Lovers now she dares not behold the awfull countenance of her Saviour She had wont to send her alluring beams forth into the eyes of her wanton paramours now she casts her dejected eyes to the earth and dares not so much as raise them up to see those eyes from which she desired commiseration It was a true inference of the Prophet Thou hast an whore's forehead thou canst not blush there cannot be a greater sign of whorishness then impudence This woman can now blush she hath put off the Harlot and is turned true Penitent Bashfulness is both a sign and effect of Grace O God could we but bethink how wretched we are in nature how vile through our sins how glorious holy and powerfull a God thou art before whom the brightest Angels hide their faces we could not come but with a trembling awfulness into thy presence Together with shame here is sorrow a sorrow testified by tears and tears in such abundance that she washes the feet of our Saviour with those streams of penitence She began to wash his feet with tears We hear when she began we hear not when she ended When the grapes are pressed the juice runs forth so when the mind is pressed tears distill the true juice of penitence and sorrow These eyes were not used to such clouds or to such showrs there was nothing in them formerly but sun-shine of pleasure beams of Lust Now they are resolved into the drops of grief and contrition Whence was this change but from the secret working of God's Spirit He caused his wind to blow and the waters flowed he smote the rock and the waters gushed out O God smite thou this rocky Heart of mine and the waters of Repentance shall burst forth in abundance Never were thy feet O Saviour bedewed with more precious liquour then this of remorsefull tears These cannot be so spent but that thou keepest them in thy bottle yea thou returnest them back with interest of true comfort They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Blessed are they that mourn Lo this wet seed-time shall be followed with an harvest of happiness and glory That this service might be complete as her Eyes were the Ewre so her Hair was the Towell for the feet
both lose our labour and thy cost The Parable is of two Debtours to one Creditour the one owed a lesser sum the other a greater both are forgiven It was not the purpose of him that propounded it that we should stick in the bark God is our Creditour our sins our Debts we are all Debtours but one more deep then another No man can pay this Debt alone satisfaction is not possible onely remission can discharge us God doth in mercy forgive as well the greatest as the least sins Our love to God is proportionable to the sense of our remission So then the Pharisee cannot chuse but confess that the more and greater the sin is the greater mercy in the forgiveness and the more mercy in the forgiver the greater obligation and more love in the forgiven Truth from whose mouth soever it falls is worth taking up Our Saviour praises the true judgment of a Pharisee It is an injurious indiscretion in those who are so prejudiced against the persons that they reject the truth He that would not quench the smoaking flax incourages even the least good As the carefull Chirurgion stroaks the arm ere he strikes the vein so did Christ here ere he convinces the Pharisee of his want of love he graceth him with a fair approbation of his judgment Yet the while turning both his face and his speech to the poor Penitent as one that cared more for a true humiliation for sin then for a false pretence of respect and innocence With what a dejected and abashed countenance with what earth-fixed eyes do we imagine the poor woman stood when she saw her Saviour direct his face and words to her She that durst but stand behind him and steal the falling of some tears upon his feet with what a blushing astonishment doth she behold his sidereall countenance cast upon her Whilst his eye was turned towards this Penitent his speech was turned to the Pharisee concerning that Penitent by him mistaken Seest thou this Woman He who before had said If this man were a Prophet he would have known what manner of Woman this is now hears Seest thou this Woman Simon saw but her outside Jesus lets him see that he saw her heart and will thus convince the Pharisee that he is more then a Prophet who knew not her conversation onely but her Soul The Pharisee that went all by appearance shall by her deportment see the proof of her good disposition it shall happily shame him to hear the comparison of the wants of his own entertainments with the abundance of hers It is strange that any of this formall Sect should be defective in their Lotions Simon had not given water to so great a Guest she washes his feet with her tears By how much the water of the eye was more precious then the water of the earth so much was the respect and courtesie of this Penitent above the neglected office of the Pharisee What use was there of a Towell where was no water She that made a fountain of her eyes made precious napary of her hair that better flax shamed the linen in the Pharisee's chest A kiss of the cheek had wont to be pledge of the welcome of their guests Simon neglects to make himself thus happy she redoubles the kisses of her humble thankfulness upon the blessed feet of her Saviour The Pharisee omits ordinary oyl for the head she supplies the most precious and fragrant oyl to his feet Now the Pharisee reads his own taxation in her praise and begins to envy where he had scorned It is our fault O Saviour if we mistake thee We are ready to think so thou have the substance of good usage thou regardest not the complements and ceremonies whereas now we see thee to have both meat and welcome in the Pharisee's house and yet hear thee glance at his neglect of washing kissing anointing Doubtless omission of due circumstances in thy Entertainment may deserve to lose our thanks Do we pray to thee do we hear thee preach to us now we make thee good chear in our house but if we perform not these things with the fit decency of our outward carriages we give thee not thy water thy kisses thy oyl Even meet ritual observances are requisite for thy full welcome Yet how little had these things been regarded if they had not argued the woman's thankfull love to thee and the ground of that love sense of her remission and the Pharisee's default in both Love and action do necessarily evince each other True love cannot lurk long unexpressed it will be looking out at the eyes creeping out of the mouth breaking out at the fingers ends in some actions of dearness especially those wherein there is pain and difficulty to the agent profit or pleasure to the affected O Lord in vain shall we profess to love thee if we doe nothing for thee Since our goodness cannot reach up unto thee who art our glorious Head O let us bestow upon thy Feet thy poor Members here below our tears our hands our oyntment and whatever our gifts or endeavours may testifie our thankfulness and love to thee in them O happy word Her sins which are many are forgiven her Methinks I see how this poor Penitent revived with this breath how new life comes into her eyes new bloud into her cheeks new spirits into her countenance like unto our Mother Earth when in that first confusion God said Let the earth bring forth grass the herb that beareth seed and the fruit-tree yielding fruit all runs out into flowers and blossoms and leaves and fruit Her former tears said Who shall deliver me from this body of death Now her chearfull smiles say I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord. Seldome ever do we meet with so perfect a Penitent seldome do we find so gracious a dismission What can be wished of any mortall creature but Remission Safety Faith Peace All these are here met to make a contrite Soul happy Remission the ground of her Safety Faith the ground of her Peace Safety and Salvation the issue of her Remission Peace the blessed fruit of her Faith O Woman the perfume that thou broughtest is poor and base in comparison of those sweet savours of rest and happiness that are returned to thee Well was that ointment bestowed wherewith thy Soul is sweetned to all Eternity XXXIV Martha and Mary WE may reade long enough ere we find Christ in an house of his own The foxes have holes and the birds have nests he that had all possessed nothing One while I see him in a Publican's house then in a Pharisee's now I find him at Martha's His last entertainment was with some neglect this with too much solicitude Our Saviour was now in his way the Sun might as soon stand still as he The more we move the liker we are to Heaven and to this God that made it His progress was to Jerusalem for some holy Feast He whose
Blessed Mother that a sword should pierce through her Soul but alas how many swords at once pierce thine Every one of these words is both sharp and edged My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death What humane Soul is capable of the conceit of the least of those sorrows that oppressed thine It was not thy Body that suffered now the pain of body is but as the body of pain the anguish of the Soul is as the soul of anguish That and in that thou sufferedst Where are they that dare so far disparage thy Sorrow as to say thy Soul suffered onely in sympathy with thy Body not immediately but by participation not in its self but in its partner Thou best knewest what thou feltest and thou that feltest thine own pain canst cry out of thy Soul Neither didst thou say My Soul is troubled so it often was even to tears but My Soul is sorrowfull as if it had been before assaulted now possessed with grief Nor yet this in any tolerable moderation changes of Passion are incident to every humane Soul but Exceeding sorrowfull Yet there are degrees in the very extremities of evils those that are most vehement may yet be capable of a remedy at least a relaxations thine was past these hopes Exceeding sorrowfull unto death What was it what could it be O Saviour that lay thus heavy upon thy Divine Soul Was it the fear of Death was it the fore-felt pain shame torment of thine ensuing Crucifixion Oh poor and base thoughts of the narrow hearts of cowardly and impotent mortality How many thousands of thy blessed Martyrs have welcomed no less tortures with smiles and gratulations and have made a sport of those exquisite cruelties which their very Tyrants thought unsufferable Whence had they this strength but from thee If their weakness were thus undaunted and prevalent what was thy power No no It was the sad weight of the Sin of mankind it was the heavy burthen of thy Father's wrath for our sin that thus pressed thy Soul and wrung from thee these bitter expressions What can it avail thee O Saviour to tell thy grief to men who can ease thee but he of whom thou saidst My Father is greater then I Lo to him thou turnest O Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Was not this that prayer O dear Christ which in the days of thy flesh thou offeredst up with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save thee from death Surely this was it Never was cry so strong never was God thus solicited How could Heaven chuse but shake at such a Prayer from the Power that made it How can my heart but tremble to hear this suit from the Captain of our Salvation O thou that saidst I and my Father are one dost thou suffer ought from thy Father but what thou wouldst what thou determinedst was this Cup of thine either casuall or forced wouldst thou wish for what thou knewest thou wouldst not have possible Far far be these mis-raised thoughts of our ignorance and frailty Thou camest to suffer and thou wouldst doe what thou camest for yet since thou wouldst be a man thou wouldst take all of man save sin it is but humane and not sinfull to be loth to suffer what we may avoid In this velleity of thine thou wouldst shew what that Nature of ours which thou hadst assumed could incline to wish but in thy resolution thou wouldst shew us what thy victorious thoughts raised and assisted by thy Divine power had determinately pitched upon Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt As man thou hadst a Will of thine own no humane Soul can be perfect without that main faculty That will which naturally could be content to incline towards an exemption from miseries gladly vails to that Divine will whereby thou art designed to the chastisements of our peace Those pains which in themselves were grievous thou embracest as decreed so as thy fear hath given place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whilst thy Mind was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendents and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy Body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agony am I in whilst I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipp'd thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankind had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest bloud If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious bloud of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutours and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentours Oh that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agony and have drawn bloud of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agony I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickedness and admire and bless thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon this Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye
and drowned in bloud to see your selves no Nation Was there ever people under Heaven that was made so famous a spectacle of misery and desolation Have ye yet enough of that bloud which ye called for upon your selves and your children Your former Cruelties Uncleannesses Idolatries cost you but some short Captivities God cannot but be just this Sin under which you now lie groaning and forlorn must needs be so much greater then these as your vastation is more and what can that be other then the murther of the Lord of Life Ye have what ye wisht be miserable till ye be penitent XLIX The Crucifixion THE sentence of Death is past and now who can with dry eyes behold the sad pomp of my Saviour's bloudy execution All the streets are full of gazing spectatours waiting for this ruefull sight At last O Saviour there thou comest out of Pilate's gate bearing that which shall soon bear thee To expect thy Cross was not torment enough thou must carry it All this while thou shalt not onely see but feel thy death before it come and must help to be an agent in thine own Passion It was not out of favour that those scornfull robes being stripped off thou art led to death in thine own cloaths So was thy face besmeared with bloud so swoln and discoloured with buffettings that thou couldst not have been known but by thy wonted habit Now thine insulting enemies are so much more imperiously cruell as they are more sure of their success Their merciless tormentings have made thee half dead already yet now as if they had done nothing they begin afresh and will force thy weakned and fainting nature to new tasks of pain The transverse of thy Cross at least is upon thy shoulder when thou canst scarce goe thou must carry One kicks thee with his foot another strikes thee with his staff another drags thee hastily by thy cord and more then one spur on thine unpitied weariness with angry commands of haste Oh true form and state of a servant All thy former actions O Saviour were though painfull yet free this as it is in it self servile so it is tyrannously inforced Inforced yet more upon thee by thy own Love to mankind then by their power and despight It was thy Father that laid upon thee the iniquity of us all It was thine own Mercy that caused thee to bear our sins upon the Cross and to bear the Cross with the curse annexed to it for our sins How much more voluntary must that needs be in thee which thou requirest to be voluntarily undertaken by us It was thy charge If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Thou didst not say Let him bear his cross as forceably imposed by another but Let him take up his cross as his free burthen free in respect of his heart not in respect of his hand so free that he shall willingly undergoe it when it is laid upon him not so free as that he shall lay it upon himself unrequired O Saviour thou didst not snatch the Cross out of the Souldiers hands and cast it upon thy shoulder but when they laid it on thy neck thou underwentest it The constraint was theirs the will was thine It was not so heavy to them or to Simon as it was to thee they felt nothing but the wood thou feltest it clogged with the load of the sins of the whole world No marvell if thou faintedst under that sad burthen thou that bearest up the whole earth by thy word didst sweat and pant and groan under this unsupportable carriage O Blessed Jesu how could I be confounded in my self to see thee after so much loss of bloud and over-toiledness of pain languishing under that fatal Tree And yet why should it more trouble me to see thee sinking under thy Cross now then to see thee anon hanging upon thy Cross In both thou wouldst render thy self weak and miserable that thou mightest so much the more glorify thy infinite mercy in suffering It is not out of any compassion of thy misery or care of thine ease that Simon of Cyrene is forced to be the porter of thy Cross it was out of their own eagerness of thy dispatch thy feeble paces were too slow for their purpose their thirst after thy bloud made them impatient of delay If thou have wearily struggled with the burthen of thy shame all along the streets of Jerusalem when thou comest once past the gates an helper shall be deputed to thee the expedition of thy death was more sweet to them then the pain of a lingring passage What thou saidst to Judas they say to the Executioner What thou doest doe quickly Whilst thou yet livest they cannot be quiet they cannot be safe to hasten thine end they lighten thy carriage Hadst thou done this out of choice which thou didst out of constraint how I should have envied thee O Simon of Cyrene as too happy in the honour to be the first man that bore that Cross of thy Saviour wherein millions of blessed Martyrs have since that time been ambitious to succeed thee Thus to bear thy Cross for thee O Saviour was more then to bear a Crown from thee Could I be worthy to be thus graced by thee I should pity all other glories Whilst thou thus passest O dear Jesu the streets and ways resound not all with one note If the malicious Jews and cruell Souldiers insulted upon thee and either haled or railed thee on with a bitter violence thy faithfull Followers were no less loud in their moans and ejulations neither would they endure that the noise of their cries and lamentations should be drowned with the clamour of those reproaches but especially thy Blessed Mother and those other zealous associates of her own sex were most passionate in their wailings And why should I think that all that devout multitude which so lately cried Hosanna in the streets did not also bear their part in these publick condolings Though it had not concerned thy self O Saviour thine ears had been still more open to the voice of grief then of malice and so thy lips also are open to the one shut to the other Daughters of Jerusalem weep not for me but weep for your selves and for your children Who would not have thought O Saviour that thou shouldst have been wholly taken up with thine own sorrows The expectation of so bitter a Death had been enough to have overwhelmed any Soul but thine yet even now can thy gracious eye find time to look beyond thine own miseries at theirs and to pity them who insensible of their own insuing condition mourned for thine now present They see thine extremity thou foreseest theirs they pour out their sorrow upon thee thou divertest it upon themselves We silly creatures walk blindfolded in this vale of tears and little know what evil is towards us onely what we feel we know and whilst we feel nothing can