prophetick and presage the Vertue they ascribe and make him the Person they proclaim him S t Paul says Charity believeth all things hopeth all things endureth all things i. e. those who have this Grace are easily induced to believe the good of another which they do not know to hope that which they do not believe and to suffer even when they can neither believe nor hope And if any man be not able to walk upon this profound Sea of Charity why does he like Peter rashly and unbidden cast himself into it Why does he presumptuously Intrude into his Masters company Who supported by a Divine Power shall stride Majestically o're the Waves and march through the storm in safety while the other disorder'd by every Gust and amaz'd at every Billow poorly sinks in the danger his Fancy only fram'd Will not such an one another day like him in the Parable that wanted a Wedding-Garment be speechless i. e. have nothing to say for himself when he sees his Prince as far above him in Glory as he was in his Station in this life And when 't is objected to him as 't was to Peter O thou of little faith wherefore didst thou doubt But to proceed God set David on his holy hill of Sion Not to say that instead of one Fort of Sion God has garded our King with many strong-holds and Castles or yet to boast the Advantages of an Island above a Hill which is not only to be ascended before it can be assaulted but to be Sail'd to before it can be approach'd and fought for before it can be Sail'd to being defended by moveable Bulwarks stout Ships which must be subdu'd before the Inhabitants can be grappl'd with upon equal terms But to come to the Point in which the chiefest strength of Sion consisted in that it was a Moral and Spiritual Fortification a holy hill and God's hill If the Church of Christ be not inferior to the Old Tabernacle the Gospel to the Law the substance to the shadow when God not only set our King upon his Throne but restor'd the True Religion and plac'd him within the Protection of it he set him upon as Holy and consequently upon as strong a Hill as he set David and we may rest assur'd he delights as much to dwell here and that 't is as desperate an Enterprize to assault this his Habitation as 't was to assault Sion But alas some will say with a deep sigh Would we found these things to be so But what for a long time has been more infirm and unstable than the Condition of this Nation Not only ready to be broken in pieces by any Impression of an Enemy but even to dissolve and fall asunder of it self and the supports of Religion have been as weak as those of the Arm of Flesh. To which I answer This has not happen'd from the Weakness of the Divine Assistances which God has given us but from our neglect and contempt of them Religion does not guard men like a Palladium or Charm preserve those who have the luck only to wear it and be possess'd of it but those who practise it and live according to its Precepts they are not Sextons and Sacrists that are chiefly protected by Heaven those that keep Divine things under Lock and Key but that treasure them up in a faithful heart When David by sin dishonour'd God and defam'd Religion his fourfold Fortification little profited him but that security which the power of the Heathen united with the disaffection of his Subjects could not shake his rebellious Son alone drove him from and he fled ingloriously and left his impregnable Sion and all the Pledges of Gods favour and residence with him behind him confessing that when he had violated their Sanctity he had invalidated also their Power of Protecting and though he possess'd still the Curtains of the Tabernacle the Deity was fled from him And little will it profit us to have the Gospel among us nay to have it more purely Preacht than to any other People under the Sun if we are the worst Auditors of it of any other People under the Sun to have the Sacraments more rightly administer'd if we are the wickedst Receivers of them 'T is the holy Use of holy Ordinances that makes them a guard and defence Righteousness as 't is the Honour of the Soul so 't is the best Armour of the Body and does not only as the Psalmist says Bring peace at the last but as the Apostle teaches safety at present For who is he that shall harm you says he if you follow that which is good 'T was the Custom of the Ancient Heathen when they Besieg'd a City in the first place to endeavour to entice out the Guardian Deity by alledging the Injustice of the Inhabitants and inviting it to reside with a more holy People ut habeat te Vrbs melior acceptiorque Holding it impossible to prevail against the Out-works when this Divine Inward strength stood firm The Sanctity of a Christian is this little retir'd Deity in the Chappel which if it cannot be charm'd or entic'd out by Temptation the Malice of Earth and Hell cannot prejudice the Person in whom it dwells The Prophet Eliah was call'd The Chariots and Horsemen of Israel but much more deservedly may Justice Piety and Sanctity be styled The Chariots and Horsemen of a Kingdom And when God by the Restauration of his Majesty and true Religion gave us the Opportunity of exercising all Vertues Civil and Divine he put it also into our hands to be as safe and well fortifi'd as we cared or desir'd to be he made our Condition as secure as a Mortal condition could be made and if our Mountain be turn'd into a Wheel our Rock into a Rolling-stone 't is our sins that have unfixt and loosen'd its Roots and while we are led by Vanity what wonder is it that the Kingdom fluctuates after the manner of the Seas that surround it If we consider Lastly how great and difficult the work was to set the Kingdom again upon its Basis after it was so utterly subverted to raise up the Truth and Splendor of the Church so long a time deform'd and Opprest by Schism and Sacriledge we may allow God also as high nay a higher cause of Glorying in our behalf than for establishing the Church and State of Israel But the time suffers me not to insist on this particular neither is it very necessary to do it we having all here been Witnesses and Partakers of what was pass'd and this will be the properer Task of another Age. Instead therefore of dressing up a Triumph for God into which also our own Vanity or Spleen may be apt to insinuate it self I shall imploy the few words yet allow'd me to speak to excite our Thanks for these things And if the Benefits we have receiv'd are such as are worthy of God's Glorying undoubtedly they are Worthy of our highest acknowledgments I say of Ours
among the Jews to repulse those that moved any thing to them unseasonably or unworthy of them to do in their Opinion and also to express their Resentment if they thought themselves hardly dealt with The Widow of Zerephath used it this last way to the Prophet Elijah when she conceiv'd the Cohabitation of so holy a Person with her and his near Inspection into her Life was the Cause of her Childs death What have I to do with thee says she O thou Man of God! art thou come unto me to call my Sins to remembrance and to slay my Son And David used it the first way 2 Sam. 19. to Abishai urging him to put Shimei to death upon the Day of his Restoration to the Kingdom because he had Curs'd him in his Flight from Jerusalem Says he What have I to do with you ye Sons of Zerviah And notwithstanding the great Dislike and Offence this Phrase exprest our Lord forbore not to use it to his Mother intermedling in his Divine Employment Woman says he What have I to do with thee I confess it was durum Dictum a harsh Speech considering the Person to whom 't was spoken but 't was also if rightly weighed frugiferum Dictum a Speech full of good Instruction and Profit For it shews Christ's equal and impartial Deportment as he is a Lord and Saviour to all Persons whatsoever without Consideration of Country Acquaintance or Kindred The very Womb that bare him in an Unadvis'd Action shall not go away without a Rebuke if his Mother does that which is Dishonourable to his Office she shall hear that which is less honourable to her Relation if she forgets her Duty he will forget her Name and Title A good Lesson for those Favourites of Christ in these our Days who call themselves his Elect and his Darling Children however they live in Disobedience to his Laws and fansie he can see nothing in them that displeases him whatever wickedness they commit Though Propinquity in Grace be more in Christ's account than Propinquity in Bloud yet if even those that are ally'd to him by Grace sin presumptuously against him they will find him but a rough Kinsman Though Coniah were as the Signet upon my Right hand says God yet would I pluck him thence And if Peter the most Zealous of the Apostles shall take upon him to tempt Christ he shall bear the Name of Adversary Get thee behind me Satan If the Provocations of the Servants of God be Great however near and close their former Relation to him was they will find him as far Estranged from them and in Case their Provocations be of a less and meaner Allay they will receive a Check as the Blessed Virgin here did And so I proceed to the Reason why Christ reprov'd her Because she unseasonably interpos'd in what she ought not to have meddled prompted him to work a Miracle before his Time was come My Time says he is not yet come These and the foregoing Words Woman what have I to do with thee utterly o'erthrow all the vain and false Glories which the Church of Rome Superstitiously Idolatrously and injuriously rather than Devoutly heap upon our Lady ascribing to her impeccability and being born without Sin the Title of Queen of Heaven and a perpetual Regency over her Son c. But as Stout and resolute Souldiers where the Works are weakest shew the greatest Valour So those of that Church shrink not for all the Assault they receive from my Text but the ruder the Shock is the more obstinately they maintain their Post. They affirm that the Action of the Blessed Virgin here was not only without Blame but full of Faith Charity Humility Prudence c. and that Christ was so far from being angry with her or having any Cause given him to be so that he took up a feigned and dissembled Dislike to have an Occasion only to teach the World and not her neither That the Power by which a Prophet works Miracles is not derived from his Parents nor to be governed by them but wholly by the Spirit of God says Cornelius à Lapide In ipsa nulla fuit culpa ergo non vera fuit Christi reprehensio reprehendere tamen illam videtur ut non ipsam sed nos doceret in operibus theandricis parentes nihil habent juris and so forth Thus the Jesuite is not asham'd to make our Lord Jesuitize i. e. falsifie and dissemble but the time would be ill spent to confute such gross Follies and Blasphemies which chuse rather to find a Miscarriage in Christ than in his Mother to make him angry without a Cause or to feign an Unjust Anger than to allow it possible for her to give him a Just Cause to be angry But the Explanation of these Words my hour is not yet come will more plainly shew wherein our Lady deserv'd a Reprehension The Hour of Christ is sometimes understood of the Hour of his Death as 't is said They could not lay hold of him because his Hour was not yet come But here it is to be understood of his Season or Opportunity to do a thing as when he answered his Brethren that ask'd him to go up to Jerusalem to the Feast Your Time says he is always but my Time is not yet come But here by the way we must not conceive any thing of the Hours assign'd to Christ of that nature which the Arrians and Priscillians did who said He was subject to Fate and Necessity and bound up to the Observation of Times and could not therefore be the Eternal Son of God Christ's Death was not impos'd on him by any Fatal Necessity as himself declares Chap. 10. and 18. of our Evangelist No man taketh my Life from me says he but I lay it down of my self I have Power to lay it down and I have Power to take it up But when 't is said The Hour of his Death was not yet come it means no more than this That he had not yet finish'd the Work for which he came into the World he had not fully preach'd the Gospel accomplish'd the Prophecies that were of him confirm'd his Disciples c. i. e. the Hour by his own Eternal Wisdom chosen was not yet come the Hour as S t Augustine speaks non Necessitatis sed Voluntatis the Hour not of his Necessity but his Will not of his Constraint but of his Counsel And the like may be said of the Hour of his working Miracles he attended no Critical Minute or favourable Conjuncture of the Stars to assist him as to his Power he could have wrought them when he would every Hour was the Hour of his Power but every Hour was not the Hour of his Opportunity he could have turned the Water into Wine at the time his Mother spoke to him as well as at any other but the End for which he did it would not have fallen out so Easily and Naturally at one time as at another and though
they were not born with cannot immediately make a Right Use of them and upon this account divers Counterfeits have been detected while they have too soon confest a distinct Knowledge of Objects and their Accidents after their pretended Recovery shewing at once both their Fraud and Ignorance by their too quick revealing their Experience This therefore I say greatly adds to the Glory of the Miracle if it were indeed so that the Organ and the skill the Faculty and the Learning were both given together We are taught from hence these two Lessons 1. That whatever our Wants or Distresses are however amazing and seemingly insuperable our Dangers yet to trust and confide in that Omnipotent God to whose Power nothing can give check who when the Senses could not be cured could yet create them and when there was no Remedy in Nature could find one by a Miracle 2. We are taught no less to adore his Bounty and Goodness who knows no other Measure of Giving but to supply all that is Necessary who to the Impotent Man gave Senses to his Senses added Knowledge to his Knowledge Faith to his Faith Salvation For God deals no otherwise with men at this day if they reject not his Grace whoever are his Patients he desires should be also his Disciples upon whomsoever he bestows Corporal or Worldly Blessings he is more ready to bestow Spiritual and Heavenly And let this suffice to be said of the first Particular the Substance of Christ's Performance his giving of Hearing and giving of Speech I shall consider in the next place the Manner of his doing it or the Ceremony and Circumstances which he used in performing his Cure The first of which was The Touch of his Finger But you will say what need was there of this Do but speak the Word as the Centurion said and my Servant shall be whole so do but speak the Word and the Deaf and Dumb shall hear and speak Christ's Ephata had been enough without his Touch the Breath of his Mouth could have wrought the Cure without the help of his Finger 'T is true and in many of his Miracles our Lord used only his Voice he restored Lazarus to Life still'd the Tempest cast out Devils merely by his Word But yet frequently he did his Cures by his Touch he took the Damsel that was dead by the hand and she arose and he laid his hands upon the Sick and healed them For some reason therefore it must be that not only at this time but at many others he performed by many Circumstances what he could have performed if he had pleased by fewer or by none at all And the first Reason might be this That the Beholders might see the Cure came from himself from no Confederacy with Spirits or any External Power and from thence might have a greater Veneration both of his Person and his Doctrine be perswaded that what proceeded from his Mouth must be True when they saw what proceeded from his Body was Divine The second Reason might be That by a greater Number of Circumstances the Miracle might make a deeper Impression and be longer remembered both by the Person healed and by the Standers-by remain a Monument as well as a Demonstration of his Power and Goodness God in the days of Moses gave not only his Precepts in Writing but expos'd them to the Touch and Sight of his People made his Commandments dangle between their Eyes in Phylacteries and trail at their feet in Fringes that what they would have forgot in Books they might remember wearing as Dresses and Ornaments And 't was for a like reason to this that our Lord instituted Baptism and his Last Supper for he could have convey'd to us the Pardon of our Sins and the Grace of his Holy Spirit without the Ceremonies of Washing and breaking of Bread but he thought fit to adde these Performances not only to make Spiritual things more plain and conceiveable but to make Transient things more permanent that his Benefits being thus rendred operatiora more full of Business and Toil they might be also memorabiliora more full of Remark and better fixt in our Minds The third Reason why our Lord wrought this Miracle by his Touch and such a Singular Touch as thrusting his Finger into the Ear and putting his Spittle upon the Tongue might be because these Actions have a Resemblance and kind of Similitude to the Means which Art ordinarily uses in like Cases Obstructions are opened by Perforations and Lenitives cause Lubricity and Volubility and the more to set off the Greatness of his Power he would have it seen that he could cure by the Figures and Images only of those things by which Surgeons and Physicians exercise their Narrow and restrained Skill he used as one says Metaphoram in facto a Metaphor in Fact employ'd his Finger as a Probe and his Spittle as an Ointment It was a wonderful Performance to cure an Original Dumbness and Deafness by any Means but to do it by such things as were indeed No Means that was more Wonderful To proceed the second Ceremony Christ used was The Lifting up of his Eyes and Sighing A Look to Heaven and a Sigh are the Prayers of them that have no other Opportunity to make their Supplications Levavi oculos meos says the Psalmist I lift up mine Eyes unto the Hills from whence cometh my help That little Motion of the Prophets the looking only for Help in Faith was his Impetration of it and S t Paul says By Sighs and Groans the Spirit makes Intercession for things that cannot be uttered or distinctly exprest Thus our Lord by casting up his Eyes to the Throne of God made his Petition and his Sighing was his Strong Intercession Not that the Father did not hear him readily and at all times as himself said but he pray'd after this manner to shew the Correspondence he held with Heaven and that the People might see that the Miracles which he wrought were the Return of his Prayers that as his Finger toucht the Ear and Tongue of the Impotent Man so his Request toucht the Throne of God But we must look upon this and all other Ceremonies which Christ used in working his Miracles as things no way needful to what he did but needful to our Imbecillity to help our Faith not to help him in his Performances they were like the Voices that came to him from Heaven not for his own Sake but for the sake of the Standers-by The third Circumstance was the Word our Lord used Ephata or be opened And if the former Circumstances which he made use of express'd any seeming Weakness or Insufficiency this last declared the Fullness of his Power and Omnipotence it being a Word like that which God spake at the Creation Let there be Light and there was Light a Word pronounced as Imperatively and Magisterially and which found as ready Obedience it was dictum factum as 't is said a Word and a Deed. The