praise of concord is in the subject if that be holy the consent is Angelical if sinfull devillish What a fearfull advantage have our spiritual enemies against us If armed troups come against single stragglers what hope is there of life of victory How much doth it concern us to band our hearts together in a communion of Saints Our enemies come upon us like a torrent O let us not run asunder like drops in the dust All our united forces will be little enough to make head against this league of destruction Legion imports Order Number Conflict Order in that there is a distinction of regiment a subordination of Officers Though in Hell there be confusion of faces yet not confusion of degrees Number Those that have reckoned a Legion at the lowest have counted it six thousand others have more then doubled it though here it is not strict but figurative yet the letter of it implies multitude How fearfull is the consideration of the number of Apostate Angels And if a Legion can attend one man how many must we needs think are they who all the world over are at hand to the punishment of the wicked the exercise of the good the temptation of both It cannot be hoped there can be any place or time wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies Be sure ye lewd men ye shall want no furtherance to evil no torment for evil Be sure ye godly ye shall not want combatants to try your strength and skill Awaken your courages to resist and stir up your hearts make sure the means of your safety There are more with us then against us The God of heaven is with us if we be with him and our Angels behold the face of God If every Devil were a Legion we are safe Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death we shall fear no evil Thou O Lord shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies and thy right hand shall save us Conflict All this Number is not for sight for rest but for motion for action Neither was there ever hour since the first blow given to our first Parents wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these adversaries As therefore strong Frontier-towns when there is a Peace concluded on both parts break up their garrison open their gates neglect their Bulwarks but when they hear of the enemy mustering his forces in great and unequal numbers then they double their guard keep sentinel repair their Sconces so must we upon the certain knowledge of our numerous and deadly enemies in continual array against us address our selves always to a wary and strong resistence I do not observe the most to think of this ghostly hostility Either they do not find there are Temptations or those Temptations hurtfull they see no worse then themselves and if they feel motions of evil arising in them they impute it to fancy or unreasonable appetite to no power but Nature's and those motions they follow without sensible hurt neither see they what harm it is to sin Is it any marvel that carnal eyes cannot discern spiritual objects that the World who is the friend the vassal of Satan is in no war with him Elisha's servant when his eyes were opened saw troups of spiritual souldiers which before he discerned not If the eyes of our Souls be once enlightned by supernatural knowledge and the clear beams of Faith we shall as plainly descry the invisible powers of wickedness as now our bodily eyes see Heaven and Earth They are though we see them not we cannot be saâ—â— from them if we do not acknowledge not oppose them The Devils are now become great suitours to Christ that he would not command them into the deep that he would permit their entrance into the Swine What is this deep but Hell both for the utter separation from the face of God and for the impossibility of passage to the region of rest and glory The very evil Spirits then fear and expect a farther degree of torment they know themselves reserved in those chains of darkness for the judgment of the great day There is the same wages due to their sins and to ours neither are the wages paid till the work be done They tempting men to sin must needs sin grievously in tempting as with us men those that mislead into sin offend more then the actours not till the upshot therefore of their wickedness shall they receive the full measure of their condemnation This Day this Deep they tremble at what shall I say of those men that fear it not It is hard for men to believe their own Unbelief If they were perswaded of this fiery dungeon this bottomless deep wherein every sin shall receive an horrible portion with the damned durst they stretch forth their hands to wickedness No man will put his hand into a fiery crucible to fetch gold thence because he knows it will burn him Did we as truly believe the everlasting burning of that infernal fire we durst not offer to fetch pleasures or profits out of the midst of those flames This degree of torment they grant in Christ's power to command They knew his power unresistible had he therefore but said Back to Hell whence ye came they could no more have staid upon earth then they can now climb into heaven O the wonderfull dispensation of the Almighty who though he could command all the evil Spirits down to their dungeons in an instant so as they should have no more opportunity of temptation yet thinks fit to retain them upon earth It is not out of weakness or improvidence of that Divine hand that wicked Spirits tyrannize here upon earth but out of the most wise and most holy ordination of God who knows how to turn evil into good how to fetch good out of evil and by the worst instruments to bring about his most just decrees Oh that we could adore that awfull and infinite power and chearfully cast our selves upon that Providence which keeps the Keys even of Hell it self and either lets out or returns the Devils to their places Their other suit hath some marvel in moving it more in the grant that they might be suffered to enter into the Herd of swine It was their ambition of some mischief that brought forth this desire that since they might not vex the Body of man they might yet afflict men in their Goods The malice of these envious Spirits reacheth from us to ours It is sore against their wills if we be not every way miserable If the Swine were legally unclean for the use of the table yet they were naturally good Had not Satan known them usefull for man he had never desired their ruine But as Fencers will seem to fetch a blow at the leg when they intend it at the head so doeth this Devil whilst he drives at the Swine he aims at the Souls of these Gadarens By this means he hoped well and his
Samaritan Cottage It was thy choice O Saviour to take upon thee the shape not of a Prince but of a Servant How can we either neglect means or despise homeliness when thou the God of all the World wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision We know well in what terms the Samaritans stood with the Jews so much more hostile as they did more symbolize in matter of Religion no Nations were mutually so hatefull to each other A Samaritan's bread was no better then Swines-flesh their very fire and water was not more grudged then infectious The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse No enmity is so desperate as that which arises from matter of Religion Agreement in some points when there are differences in the main doth but advance hatred the more It is not more strange to hear the Son of God sue for a lodging then to hear him repelled Upon so churlish a deniall the two angry Disciples return to their Master on a fiery errand Lord wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them as Elias did The Sons of Thunder would be lightning straight their zeal whether as kinsmen or Disciples could not brook so harsh a refusal As they were naturally more hot then their fellows so now they thought their Piety bade them be impatient Yet they dare not but begin with leave Master wilt thou His will must lead theirs their choler cannot drive their wills before his all their motion is from him onely True Disciples are like those artificiall engines which goe no otherwise then they are set or like little Children that speak nothing but what they are taught O Saviour if we have wills of our own we are not thine Do thou set me as thou wouldst have me goe do thou teach me what thou wouldst have me say or doe A mannerly preface leads in a faulty suit Master wilt thou that we command fire to come down from Heaven and consume them Faulty both in presumption and in desire of private revenge I do not hear them say Master will it please thee who art the sole Lord of the Heavens and the Elements to command fire from Heaven upon these men but Wilt thou that we command As if because they had power given them over diseases and unclean spirits therefore Heaven and Earth were in their managing How easily might they be mistaken Their large commission had the just limits Subjects that have munificent grants from their Princes can challenge nothing beyond the words of their Patent And if the fetching down fire from Heaven were less then the dispossessing of Devils since the Devil shall inable the Beast to doe thus much yet how possible is it to doe the greater and stick at the less where both depend upon a delegated power The Magicians of Aegypt could bring forth Frogs and Bloud they could not bring Lice ordinary Corruption can doe that which they could not It is the fashion of our bold Nature upon an inch given to challenge an ell and where we find our selves graced with some abilities to flatter our selves with the faculty of more I grant Faith hath done as great things as ever Presumption undertook but there is great difference in the enterprises of both The one hath a warrant either by instinct or express command the other none at all Indeed had these two Disciples either meant or said Master if it be thy pleasure to command us to call down fire from Heaven we know thy word shall enable us to doe what thou requirest if the words be ours the power shall be thine this had been but holy modest faithfull but if they supposed there needed nothing save a leave onely and that might they be but let loose they could go alone they presumed they offended Yet had they thus overshot themselves in some pious and charitable motion the fault had been the less now the act had in it both cruelty and private revenge Their zeal was not worthy of more praise then their fury of censure That fire should fall down from Heaven upon men is a fearfull thing to think of and that which hath not been often done It was done in the case of Sodome when those five unclean Cities burned with the unnatural fire of hellish Lust it was done two severall times at the suit of Elijah it was done in an height of triall to that great pattern of Patience I find it no more and tremble at these I find But besides the dreadfulness of the judgment it self who can but quake at the thought of the suddenness of this destruction which sweeps away both Body and Soul in a state of unpreparation of unrepentance so as this fire should but begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onely negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrel or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers onely a meer inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no less revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloudy a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoyned unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but find much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindly warmth and vital temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old
stick at this shovel-full Yea how easy had it been for thee to have brought up the body of Lazarus through the stone by causing that marble to give way by a sudden rarefaction But thou thoughtest best to make use of their hands rather whether for their own more full conviction for had the stone been taken away by thy Followers and Lazarus thereupon walked forth this might have appeared to thy malignant enemies to have been a set match betwixt thee the Disciples and Lazarus or whether for the exercise of our Faith that thou mightest teach us to trust thee under contrary appearances Thy command to remove the stone seemed to argue an impotence straight that seeming weakness breaks forth into an act of Omnipotent power The homeliest shews of thine humane infirmity are ever seconded with some mighty proofs of thy Godhead and thy Miracle is so much more wondred at by how much it was less expected It was ever thy just will that we should doe what we may To remove the stone or to untie the napkin was in their power this they must doe to raise the dead was out of their power this therefore thou wilt doe alone Our hands must doe their utmost ere thou wilt put to thine O Saviour we are all dead and buried in the grave of our sinfull Nature The stone of obstination must be taken away from our hearts ere we can hear thy reviving voice we can no more remove this stone then dead Lazarus could remove his we can adde more weight to our graves O let thy faithfull agents by the power of thy Law and the grace of thy Gospell take off the stone that thy voice may enter into the grave of miserable corruption Was it a modest kind of mannerliness in Martha that she would not have Christ annoyed with the ill sent of that stale carkass or was it out of distrust of reparation since her brother had passed all the degrees of corruption that she says Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days He that understood hearts found somewhat amiss in that intimation his answer had not endeavoured to rectifie that which was utterly faultless I fear the good woman meant to object this as a likely obstacle to any farther purposes or proceedings of Christ Weak faith is still apt to lay blocks of difficulties in the way of the great works of God Four days were enough to make any corps noisome Death it self is not unsavoury immediately upon dissolution the body retains the wonted sweetness it is the continuance under death that is thus offensive Neither is it otherwise in our Spiritual condition the longer we lie under our sin the more rotten and corrupt we are He who upon the fresh commission of his sin recovers himself by a speedy repentance yields no ill sent to the nostrills of the Almighty The Candle that is presently blown in again offends not it is the Snuffe which continues choaked with its own moisture that sends up unwholsome and odious fumes O Saviour thou wouldst yield to death thou wouldst not yield to corruption Ere the fourth day thou wert risen again I cannot but receive many deadly foils but oh do thou raise me up again ere I shall pass the degrees of rottenness in my sins and trespasses They that laid their hands to the stone doubtless held now still awhile and looked one while on Christ another while upon Martha to hear what issue of resolution would follow upon so important an objection when they find a light touch of taxation to Martha Said not I to thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God That holy woman had before professed her belief as Christ had professed his great intentions both were now forgotten and now our Saviour is fain to revive both her memory and Faith Said not I to thee The best of all Saints are subject to fits of unbelief and oblivion the onely remedy whereof must be the inculcation of God's mercifull promises of their relief and supportation O God if thou have said it I dare believe I dare cast my Soul upon the belief of every word of thine Faithfull art thou which hast promised who wilt also doe it In spite of all the unjust discouragements of Nature we must obey Christ's command What-ever Martha suggests they remove the stone and may now see and smell him dead whom they shall soon see revived The sent of the corps is not so unpleasing to them as the perfume of their obedience is sweet to Christ And now when all impediments are removed and all hearts ready for the work our Saviour addresses to the Miracle His Eyes begin they are lift up to Heaven It was the malicious mis-suggestion of his enemies that he look'd down to Beelzebub the beholders shall now see whence he expects and derives his power and shall by him learn whence to expect and hope for all success The heart and the eye must go together he that would have ought to doe with God must be sequestred and lifted up from earth His Tongue seconds his Eye Father Nothing more stuck in the stomack of the Jews then that Christ called himself the Son of God this was imputed to him for a Blasphemy worthy of stones How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews in whose sight he will be presently approved so How can ye now O ye cavillers except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified Well may he call God Father that can raise the dead out of the grave In vain shall ye snarl at the style when ye are convinced of the effect I hear of no Prayer but a Thanks for hearing Whilst thou saidst nothing O Saviour how doth thy Father hear thee Was it not with thy Father and thee as it was with thee and Moses Thou saidst Let me alone Moses when he spake not Thy will was thy prayer Words express our hearts to men thoughts to God Well didst thou know out of the self-sameness of thy will with thy Father's that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise he was now raised It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly lest those captious hearers should say thou didst all by intreaty nothing by power Thy thanks overtake thy desires ours require time and distance our thanks arise from the Echo of our prayers resounding from Heaven to our hearts Thou because thou art at once in earth and Heaven and knowest the grant to be of equall paces with the request most justly thankest in praying Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight Is there such distance betwixt the Father and the Son is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusuall Do ye not now see that he who made your heart knows it and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath I knew that thou hearest me always but
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
attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadfull majesty of the generall Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angel's hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou neededst but because thou wouldest like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badest others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spirituall designs Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkened and all creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy creatures should testifie their joy and exultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festivall-days put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of man's Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the bloud of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetuall work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spirituall powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be overjoyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceivable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despite of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Sum is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defrayed that quarrell is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerfull Redeemer it cannot now
her travail have been destitute of lodging in the City of David Little did the Bethlehemites think what a Guest they refused else they would gladly have opened their doors to him who was able to open the gates of Heaven to them Now their Inhospitality is punishment enough to it self They have lost the honour and happiness of being Host to their God Even still O Blessed Saviour thou standest at our doors and knockest every motion of thy good Spirit tells us thou art there Now thou comest in thine own name and there thou standest whilst thy head is full of dew and thy locks wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnal desires and worldly thoughts to take up the lodging of our Heart and revell within us whilst thou waitest upon our admission surely our judgement shall be so much the greater by how much better we know whom we have excluded What do we cry shame on the Bethlehemites whilst we are wilfully more churlish more unthankfull There is no room in my heart for the wonder at this Humility He for whom Heaven is too streight whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain lies in the streight cabbin of the womb and when he would inlarge himself for the world is not allowed the room of an Inne The many mansions of Heaven were at his disposing the Earth was his and the fulness of it yet he suffers himself to be refused of a base Cottage and complaineth not What measure should discontent us wretched men when thou O God farest thus from thy creatures How should we learn both to want and abound from thee who abounding with the glory and riches of Heaven wouldst want a lodging in thy first welcome to the earth Thou camest to thine own and thy own received thee not How can it trouble us to be rejected of the world which is not ours What wonder is it if thy servants wandred abroad in sheep-skins and goat-skins destitute and afflicted when their Lord is denied harbour How should all the world blush at this indignity of Bethlehem He that came to save Men is sent for his first lodging to the Beasts The Stable is become his Inne the Cratch his Bed O strange Cradle of that great King which Heaven it self may envy O Saviour thou that wert both the Maker and Owner of Heaven of Earth couldst have made thee a Palace without hands couldst have commanded thee an empty room in those houses which thy creatures had made When thou didst but bid the Angels avoid their first place they fell down from Heaven like lightning and when in thy humbled estate thou didst but say I am he who was able to stand before thee How easie had it been for thee to have made place for thy self in the throngs of the stateliest Courts Why wouldst thou be thus homely but that by contemning worldly Glories thou mightest teach us to contemn them that thou mightest-sanctify Poverty to them whom thou calledst unto want that since thou who hadst the choice of all earthly conditions wouldst be born poor and despised those which must want out of necessity might not think their Poverty grievous Here was neither friend to entertain nor servant to attend nor place wherein to be attended onely the poor Beasts gave way to the God of all the world It is the great mystery of godliness that God was manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels but here which was the top of all wonders the very Beasts might see their Maker For those Spirits to see God in the flesh it was not so strange as for the brute creatures to see him who was the God of spirits He that would be led into the wilderness amongst wild beasts to be tempted would come into the house of beasts to be born that from the height of his Divine Glory his Humiliation might be the greater How can we be abased low enough for thee O Saviour that hast thus neglected thy self for us That the visitation might be answerable to the homeliness of the place attendents provision who shall come to congratulate his birth but poor Shepherds The Kings of the earth rest at home and have no summons to attend him by whom they reign God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty In an obscure time the night unto obscure men Shepherds doth God manifest the light of his Son by glorious Angels It is not our meanness O God that can exclude us from the best of thy mercies yea thus far dost thou respect persons that thou hast put down the mighty and exalted them of low degree If these Shepherds had been snorting in their beds they had no more seen Angels nor heard news of their Saviour then their neighbours Their vigilancy is honoured with this heavenly Vision Those who are industrious in any calling are capable of farther Blessings whereas the Idle are fit for nothing but Temptation No less then a whole Chore of Angels are worthy to sing the Hymn of Glory to God for the Incarnation of his Son What joy is enough for us whose nature he took and whom he came to restore by his Incarnation If we had the tongues of Angels we could not raise this note high enough to the praise of our glorious Redeemer No sooner do the Shepherds hear the news of a Saviour then they run to Bethlehem to seek him Those that left their beds to tend their flocks leave their flocks to enquire after their Saviour No earthly thing is too dear to be forsaken for Christ If we suffer any worldly occasion to stay us from Bethlehem we care more for our sheep then our souls It is not possible that a faithfull heart should hear where Christ is and not labour to the sight to the fruition of him Where art thou O Saviour but at home in thine own house in the assembly of thy Saints Where art thou to be found but in thy Word and Sacraments Yea there thou seekest for us if there we haste not to seek for thee we are worthy to want thee worthy that our want of thee here should make us want the presence of thy face for ever IV. The Sages and the Star THE Shepherds and the Cratch accorded well yet even they saw nothing which they might not contemn neither was there any of those Shepherds that seemed not more like a King then that King whom they came to see But O the Divine Majesty that shined in this Basenesse There lies the Babe in the Stable crying in the Manger whom the Angels came down from Heaven to proclaim whom the Sages come from the East to adore whom an heavenly Star notifies to the world that now men might see that Heaven and Earth serves him that neglected himself Those Lights that hang low are not far seen but those that are high placed are equally seen in the remotest distances Thy light O Saviour was no lesse then heavenly The East saw that which Bethlehem might
to his God Christ hath left many a soul for froward and unkind usage never any for the disparagement of it self and intreaties of humility Simon could not devise how to hold Christ faster then by thus suing to him to be gone then by thus pleading his Unworthiness O my soul be not weary of complaining of thine own wretchedness disgrace thy self to him that knows thy vileness be astonished at those mercies which have shamed thine ill deservings Thy Saviour hath no power to go away from a prostrate heart He that resists the proud heartens the lowly Fear not for I will make thee henceforth a Fisher of men Loe this Humility is rewarded with an Apostleship What had the Earth ever more glorious then a Legacy from Heaven He that bade Christ go from him shall have the honour to go first on this happy errand This was a Trade that Simon had no skill of it could not but be enough to him that Christ said I will make thee the Miracle shewed him able to make good his word He that hath power to command the Fishes to be taken can easily inable the hands to take them What is this Divine Trade of ours then but a spiritual Piscation The World is a Sea Souls like Fishes swim at liberty in this Deep the Nets of wholsome Doctrine draw up some to the shore of Grace and Glory How much skill and toil and patience is requisite in this Art Who is sufficient for these things This Sea these Nets the Fishers the Fish the Vessels are all thine O God doe what thou wilt in us and by us Give us ability and grace to take give men will and grace to be taken and take thou Glory by that which thou hast given XI The Marriage in Cana. WAS this then thy first Miracle O Saviour that thou wroughtest in Cana of Galilee And could there be a greater Miracle then this that having been thirty years upon earth thou didst no Miracle till now that thy Divinity did hide it self thus long in Flesh that so long thou wouldst lie obscure in a corner of Galilee unknown to that World thou camest to redeem that so long thou wouldst strain the patient expectation of those who ever since thy Star waited upon the revelation of a Messias We silly wretches if we have but a dram of Vertue are ready to set it out to the best show Thou who receivedst not the Spirit by measure wouldst content thy self with a willing obscurity and concealedst that Power that made the World in the roof of an Humane breast in a Cottage of Nazareth O Saviour none of thy Miracles is more worthy of astonishment then thy not doing of Miracles What thou didst in private thy wisedom thought fit for secrecy but if thy Blessed Mother had not been acquainted with some domestical Wonders she had not now expected a Miracle abroad The Stars are not seen by day the Sun it self is not seen by night As it is no small art to hide Art so is it no small glory to conceal Glory Thy first publick Miracle graceth a Marriage It is an ancient and laudable institution that the Rites of Matrimony should not want a solemn celebration When are Feasts in season if not at the recovery of our lost Rib if not at this main change of our estate wherein the joy of obtaining meets with the hope of farther comforts The Son of the Virgin and the Mother of that Son are both at a Wedding It was in all likelihood some of their Kindred to whose nuptiall feast they were invited so far yet was it more the honour of the act then of the person that Christ intended He that made the first Marriage in Paradise bestows his first Miracle upon a Galilaean Marriage He that was the Authour of Matrimony and sanctified it doth by his Holy presence honour the resemblance of his eternall union with his Church How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure Adversaries of Wedlock when the Son of God pleases to honour it The glorious Bridegroom of the Church knew well how ready men would be to place shame even in the most lawfull conjunctions and therefore his first work shall be to countenance his own Ordinance Happy is that Wedding where Christ is a Guest O Saviour those that marry in thee cannot marry without thee There is no holy Marriage whereat thou art not however invisible yet truly present by thy Spirit by thy gracious Benediction Thou makest Marriages in Heaven thou blessest them from Heaven O thou that hast betrothed us to thy self in Truth and Righteousness do thou consummate that happy Marriage of ours in the highest Heavens It was no rich or sumptuous Bridal to which Christ with his Mother and Disciples vouchsafed to come from the farther parts of Galilee I find him not at the magnificent feasts or triumphs of the Great The proud pomp of the World did not agree with the state of a Servant This poor needy Bridegroom wants drink for his guests The Blessed Virgin though a stranger to the house out of a charitable compassion and a friendly desire to maintain the decency of an hospitall entertainment inquires into the wants of her Host pities them bemoans them where there was power of redress When the wine failed the mother of Jesus said unto him They have no wine How well doth it beseem the eyes of piety and Christian love to look into the necessities of others She that conceived the God of mercies both in her heart and in her womb doth not fix her eyes upon her own Trencher but searcheth into the penury of a poor Israelite and feels those wants whereof he complains not They are made for themselves whose thoughts are onely taken up with their own store or indigence There was wine enough for a meal though not for a feast and if there were not wine enough there was enough water yet the Holy Virgin complains of the want of wine and is troubled with the very lack of superfluity The bounty of our God reaches not to our life onely but to our contentment neither hath he thought good to allow us onely the bread of sufficiency but sometimes of pleasure One while that is but necessary which some other time were superfluous It is a scrupulous injustice to scant our selves where God hath been liberal To whom should we complain of any want but to the Maker and Giver of all things The Blessed Virgin knew to whom she sued She had good reason to know the Divine nature and power of her Son Perhaps the Bridegroom was not so needy but if not by his purse yet by his credit he might have supplied that want or it were hard if some of the neighbour-guests had they been duely solicited might not have furnished him with so much wine as might suffice for the last service of a dinner But Blessed Mary knew a nearer way she did not think best to lade at the shallow Chanel but runs
that there should be a ceremonious carriage of thy solemn actions which thou pleasest to produce cloathed with such circumstantial forms It did not content thee to put one finger into one ear but into either ear wouldst thou put a finger both ears equally needed cure thou wouldst apply the means of cure to both The Spirit of God is the finger of God then dost thou O Saviour put thy finger into our ear when thy Spirit inables us to hear effectually If we thrust our own fingers into our ears using such humane perswasions to our selves as arise from worldly grounds we labour in vain yea these stoppells musts needs hinder our hearing the voice of God Hence the great Philosophers of the ancient world the learned Rabbins of the Synagogue the great Doctours of a false faith are deaf to spiritual things It is onely that finger of thy Spirit O Blessed Jesu that can open our ears and make passage through our ears into our hearts Let that finger of thine be put into our ears so shall our deafness be removed and we shall hear not the loud thunders of the Law but the gentle whisperings of thy gracious motions to our souls We hear for our selves but we speak for others Our Saviour was not content to open the ears onely but to untie the tongue With the ear we hear with the mouth we confess The same hand is applied to the tongue not with a dry touch but with spittle in allusion doubtless to the removall of the naturall impediment of speech moisture we know glibs the tongue and makes it apt to motion how much more from that sacred mouth There are those whose ears are open but their mouths are still shut to God they understand but do not utter the wonderfull things of God there is but half a cure wrought upon these men their ear is but open to hear their own judgement except their mouth be open to confess their Maker and Redeemer O God do thou so moisten my tongue with th◠〈◊〉 that it may run smoothly as the pen of a ready writer to the praise of thy name Whilst the finger of our Saviour was on the tongue in the ear of the Patient his eye was in Heaven Never man had so much cause to look up to Heaven as he there was his home there was his throne he onely was from heaven heavenly Each of us hath a good mind homeward though we meet with better sights abroad how much more when our home is so glorious above the region of our peregrination but thou O Saviour hadst not onely thy dwelling there but thy seat of majesty there the greatest Angels adored thee it is a wonder that thine eye could be ever any-where but there What doeth thine eye in this but teach ours where to be fixed Every good gift and every perfect giving come down from above how can we look off from that place whence we receive all good Thou didst not teach us to say O infinite God which art every-where but O our Father which art in heaven there let us look up to thee O let not our eyes or hearts grovell upon this earth but let us fasten them above the hills whence cometh our salvation thence let us acknowledge all the good we receive thence let us expect all the good we want Why our Saviour look'd up to Heaven though he had Heaven in himself we can see reason enough but why did he sigh Surely not for need the least motion of a thought was in him impetratory How could he chuse but be heard of his Father who was one with the Father Not for any fear of distrust But partly for compassion partly for example For compassion of those manifold infirmities into which sin had plunged mankind a pitifull instance whereof was here presented unto him For example to fetch sighs from us for the miseries of others sighs of sorrow for them sighs of desire for their redress This is not the first time that our Saviour spent sighs yea tears upon humane distresses We are not bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh if we so feel not the smart of our brethren that the fire of our passion break forth into the smoke of sighs Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not Christ was not silent whilst he cured the Dumb his Epphatha gave life to all these his other actions His sighing his spitting his looking up to heaven were the acts of a man but his command of the ear and mouth to open was the act of God He could not command that which he made not His word is imperative ours supplicatory He doeth what he will with us we doe by him what he thinks good to impart In this mouth the word cannot be severed from the success our Saviour's lips are no sooner opened in his Epphatha then the mouth of the Dumb and the ears of the Deaf are opened at once Behold here celerity and perfection Naturall agents work by leisure by degrees nothing is done in an instant by many steps is every thing carried from the entrance to the consummation Omnipotency knows no rules no imperfect work can proceed from a cause absolutely perfect The man hears now more lightly then if he had never been deaf and speaks more plainly then if he had never been tongue-ty'd And can we blame him if he bestowed the handsel of his speech upon the power that restored it if the first improvement of his tongue were the praise of the giver of the maker of it Or can we expect other then that our Saviour should say Thy tongue is free use it to the praise of him that made it so thy ears are open hear him that bids thee proclaim thy cure upon the house-top But now behold contrarily he that opens this man's mouth by his powerfull word by the same word shuts it again charging silence by the same breath wherewith he gave speech Tell no man Those tongues which interceded for his Cure are charmed for the concealment of it O Saviour thou knowest the grounds of thine own commands it is not for us to enquire but to obey we may not honour thee with a forbidden celebration Good meanings have oft-times proved injurious Those men whose charity imployed their tongues to speak for the dumb man do now imploy the same tongues to speak of his cure when they should have been dumb This charge they imagine proceeds from an humble modesty in Christ which the respect to his honour bids them violate I know not how we itch after those forbidden acts which if left to our liberty we willingly neglect This prohibition increaseth the rumour every tongue is busied about this one What can we make of this but a well-meant disobedience O God I should more gladly publish thy Name at thy command I know thou canst not bid me to dishonour thee there is no danger of such an injunction but if thou shouldst bid me to
himself is a several Goal Did ever any man that ran for a prize say I will keep up with the rest Doth he not know that if he be not foremost he loseth We had as good to have sate still as not so to run that we may obtain We obtain not if we out-run not the multitude So far did Zacchaeus over-run the stream of the people that he might have space to climb the Sycomore ere Jesus could pass by I examine not the kind the nature the quality of this Plant what Tree soever it had been Zacchaeus would have tried to scale it for the advantage of this prospect He hath found out this help for his stature and takes pains to use it It is the best improvement of our wit to seek out the aptest furtherances for our Souls Do you see a weak and studious Christian that being unable to inform himself in the matters of God goes to the cabinet of Heaven the Priests lips which shall preserve knowledge there is Zacchaeus in the Sycomore It is the truest wisedom that helps forward our Salvation How witty we are to supply all the deficiencies of Nature If we be low we can adde cubits to our stature if ill-coloured we can borrow complexion if hairless perukes if dim-sighted glasses if lame crutches and shall we be conscious of our spiritual wants and be wilfully regardless of the remedy Surely had Zacchaeus stood still on the ground he had never seen Christ had he not climbed the Sycomore he had never climbed into Heaven O Saviour I have not height enough of my own to see thee give me what Sycomore thou wilt give me grace to use it give me an happy use of that grace The more I look at the mercy of Christ the more cause I see of astonishment Zacchaeus climbes up into the Sycomore to see Jesus Jesus first sees him preventing his eyes with a former view Little did Zacchaeus look that Jesus would have cast up his eyes to him Well might he think the boys in the street would spy him out and shout at his stature trade ambition but that Jesus should throw up his eyes into the Sycomore and take notice of that small despised morsell of flesh ere Zacchaeus could find space to distinguish His face from the rest was utterly beyond his thought or expectation All his hope is to see and now he is seen To be seen and acknowledged is much more then to see Upon any solemn occasion many thousands see the Prince whom he sees not and if he please to single out any one whether by his eye or by his tongue amongst the press it passes for an high favour Zacchaeus would have thought it too much boldness to have asked what was given him As Jonathan did to David so doeth God to us he shoots beyond us Did he not prevent us with mercy we might climbe into the Sycomore in vain If he give Grace to him that doeth his best it is the praise of the giver not the earning of the receiver How can we doe or will without him If he sees us first we live and if we desire to see him we shall be seen of him Who ever took pains to climbe the Sycomore and came down disappointed O Lord what was there in Zacchaeus that thou shouldst look up at him a Publican a Sinner an Arch-extortioner a Dwarf in stature but a Giant in oppression a little man but a great Sycophant if rich in coin more rich in sins and treasures of wrath Yet it is enough that he desires to see thee all these disadvantages cannot hide him from thee Be we never so sinfull if our desires towards thee be hearty and fervent all the broad leaves of the Sycomore cannot keep off thine eye from us If we look at thee with the eye of Faith thou wilt look at us with the eye of mercy The eye of the Lord is upon the just and he is just that would be so if not in himself yet in thee O Saviour when Zacchaeus was above and thou wert below thou didst look up at him now thou art above and we below thou lookest down upon us thy mercy turns thine eyes every way towards our necessities Look down upon us that are not worthy to look up unto thee and find us out that we may seek thee It was much to note Zacchaeus it was more to name him Methinks I see how Zacchaeus startled at this to hear the sound of his own name from the mouth of Christ neither can he but think Doth Jesus know me Is it his voice or some other 's in the throng Lo this is the first blink that ever I had of him I have heard the fame of his wonderfull works and held it happiness enough for me to have seen his face and doth he take notice of my person of my name Surely the more that Zacchaeus knew himself the more doth he wonder that Christ should know him It was slander enough for a man to be a friend to a Publican yet Christ gives this friendly compellation to the chief of Publicans and honours him with this argument of a sudden intireness The favour is great but not singular Every elect of God is thus graced The Father knows the child's name as he calls the stars of heaven by their names so doth he his Saints the stars on earth and it is his own rule to his Israel I have called thee by thy name thou art mine As God's children do not content themselves with a confused knowledge of him but aspire to a particular appprehension and sensible application so doeth God again to them it is not enough that he knows them as in the croud wherein we see many persons none distinctly but he takes single and severall knowledge of their qualities conditions motions events What care we that our names are obscure or contemned amongst men whilst they are regarded by God that they are raked up in the dust of Earth whilst they are recorded in Heaven Had our Saviour said no more but Zacchaeus come down the poor man would have thought himself taxed for his boldness and curiosity it were better to be unknown then noted for miscarriage But now the next words comfort him For I must this day abide at thine house What a sweet familiarity was here as if Christ had been many years acquainted with Zacchaeus whom he now first saw Besides our use the Host is invited by the Guest and called to an unexpected entertainment Well did our Saviour hear Zacchaeus his heart inviting him though his mouth did not Desires are the language of the Soul those are heard by him that is the God of spirits We dare not doe thus to each other save where we have eaten much salt we scarce go where we are invited though the face be friendly and the entertainment great yet the heart may be hollow But here he that saw the heart and foreknew his welcome can boldly say I must this day
never perfect Disciples till we can depart from our reason from our will yea O Saviour when thou biddest us from thy self Neither will the multitude be gone without a dismission They had followed him whilst they were hungry they will not leave him now they are fed Fain would they put that honour upon him which to avoid he is fain to avoid them gladly would they pay a Kingdom to him as their shot for their late banquet he shuns both it and them O Saviour when the hour of thy Passion was now come thou couldst offer thy self readily to thine apprehenders and now when the glory of the world presses upon thee thou runnest away from a crown Was it to teach us that there is less danger in suffering then in outward prosperity What do we dote upon that worldly honour which thou heldst worthy of avoidance and contempt Besides this reservedness it was devotion that drew Jesus aside He went alone up to the mountain to pray Lo thou to whom the greatest throng was a solitude in respect of the fruition of thy Father thou who wert uncapable of distraction from him with whom thou wert one wouldst yet so much act man as to retire for the opportunity of prayer to teach us who are nothing but wild thoughts and giddy distractedness to go aside when we would speak with God How happy is it for us that thou prayedst O Saviour thou prayedst for us who have not grace enough to pray for our selves nor worth enough to be accepted when we do pray Thy prayers which were most perfect and impetrative are they by which our weak and unworthy prayers receive both life and favour And now how assiduous should we be in our supplications who are empty of grace full of wants when thou who wert a God of all power praiedst for that which thou couldst command Therefore do we pray because thou praiedst therefore do we expect to be graciously answered in our prayers because thou didst pray for us here on earth and now intercedest for us in Heaven The evening was come the Disciples look'd long for their Master and loth they were to have stirred without him but his command is more then the strongest wind to fill their sails and they are now gone Their expectation made not the evening seem so long as our Saviour's devotion made it seem short to him He is on the mount they on the sea yet whilst he was in the mount praying and lifting up his eyes to his Father he fails not to cast them about upon his Disciples tossed on the waves Those all-seeing eyes admit of no limits At once he sees the highest Heavens and the midst of the Sea the glory of his Father and the misery of his Disciples Whatever prospects present themselves to his view the distress of his Followers is ever most noted How much more dost thou now O Saviour from the height of thy glorious advancement behold us thy wretched servants tossed on the unquiet sea of this World and beaten with the troublesome and threatning billows of Affliction Thou foresawest their toil and danger ere thou dismissedst them and purposedly sendest them away that they might be tossed Thou that couldst prevent our sufferings by thy power wilt permit them in thy wisedom that thou mayest glorifie thy mercy in our deliverance and confirm our Faith by the issue of our distresses How do all things now seem to conspire to the vexing of the poor Disciples The night was sullen and dark their Master was absent the sea was boistrous the winds were high and contrary Had their Master been with them howsoever the elements had raged they had been secure Had their Master been away yet if the sea had been quiet or the winds fair the passage might have been endured Now both season and sea and wind and their Master's desertion had agreed to render them perfectly miserable Sometimes the Providence of God hath thought good so to order it that to his best servants there appeareth no glimpse of comfort but so absolute vexation as if Heaven and earth had plotted their full affliction Yea O Saviour what a dead night what a fearfull tempest what an astonishing dereliction was that wherein thou thy self criedst out in the bitterness of thine anguished Soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Yet in all these extremities of misery our gracious God intends nothing but his greater glory and ours the triumph of our Faith the crown of our Victory All that lonesome and tempestuous night must the Disciples wear out in danger and horrour as given over to the winds and waves but in the fourth watch of the night when they were wearied out with toils and fears comes deliverance At their entrance into the ship at the arising of the tempest at the shutting in of the evening there was no news of Christ but when they have been all the night long beaten not so much with storms and waves as with their own thoughts now in the fourth watch which was near to the morning Jesus came unto them and purposely not till then that he might exercise their patience that he might inure them to wait upon Divine Providence in cases of extremity that their Devotions might be more whetted by delay that they might give gladder welcome to their deliverance O God thus thou thinkest fit to doe still We are by turns in our sea the winds bluster the billows swell the night and thy absence heighten our discomfort thy time and ours is set as yet it is but midnight with us can we but hold out patiently till the fourth watch thou wilt surely come and rescue us Oh let us not faint under our sorrows but wear out our three watches of tribulation with undaunted patience and holy resolution O Saviour our extremities are the seasons of thine aid Thou camest at last but yet so as that there was more dread then joy in thy presence Thy coming was both miraculous and frightfull Thou God of Elements passedst through the air walkedst upon the waters Whether thou meantest to terminate this Miracle in thy Body or in the waves which thou trodest upon whether so lightning the one that it should make no impression in the liquid waters or whether so consolidating the other that the pavemented waves yielded a firm causey to thy sacred feet to walk on I neither determine nor inquire thy silence ruleth mine thy power was in either miraculous neither know I in whether to adore it more But withall give me leave to wonder more at thy passage then at thy coming Wherefore camest thou but to comfort them and wherefore then wouldst thou pass by them as if thou hadst intended nothing but their dismay Thine absence could not be so grievous as thy preterition that might seem justly occasioned this could not but seem willingly neglective Our last conflicts have wont ever to be the forest as when after some dripping rain it pours down most vehemently we
Pride another of the Tentigo of Lust another of the Vertigo of Inconstancy another of the choaking Squinancy of Curses and Blasphemies one of the Boulimy of Gluttony another of the Pleuritical stitches of Envy one of the contracting Cramp of Covetousness another of the Atrophie of Unproficiency one is hide-bound with Pride another is consumed with Emulation another rotten with Corrupt desires and we are so much the sicker if we feel not these distempers Oh that we could wait at the Bethesda of God attend diligently upon his Ordinances we could no more fail of cure then now we can hope for cure We wait hard and endure much for the Body Quantis laboribus agitur ut longiore tempore laboretur Multi cruciatus suscipiuntur certi ut pauci dies adjiciantur incerti What toil do we take that we may toil yet longer We endure many certain pains for the addition of a few uncertain days saith Austin Why will we not doe thus for the Soul Without waiting it will not be The Cripple Act. 3.4 was bidden 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Look up to us He look'd up It was cold comfort that he heard Silver and Gold have I none but the next clause made amends for all Surge ambula Rise and walk and this was because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he attended expecting verse 5. Would we be cured It is not for us to snatch at Bethesda as a Dog at Nilus nor to draw water and away as Rebecca nor to set us a while upon the banks as the Israelites by the rivers of Babylon but we must dwell in God's House wait at Bethesda But what shall I say to you Courtiers but even as Saint Paul to his Corinthians Ye are full ye are rich ye are strong without us Many of you come to this place not as to Bethel the House of God or Bethesda the house of effusion but as to Bethaven the house of vanity If ye have not lost your old wont there are more words spoken in the outer Closet by the hearers then in the Chappel by the Preacher as if it were Closet quasi close-set in an Exchange like communication of News What do ye think of Sermons as matters of formality as very Superfluities as your own idle Complements which either ye hear not or believe not What do ye think of your selves Have ye onely a postern to go to Heaven by your selves where-through ye can go besides the foolishness of Preaching or do ye sing that old Pelagian note Quid nunc mihi opus est Deo What need have I of God What should I say to this but Increpa Domine As for our houshold Sermons our Auditours are like the fruit of a tree in an unseasonable year or like a wood new felled that hath some few spires left for standers some poles distance or like the tithe sheaves in a field when the corn is gone 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as he said It is true ye have more Sermons and more excellent then all the Courts under Heaven put together but as Austin said well Quid mihi proderit bona res non utenti bene What am I the better for a good thing if I use it not well Let me tell you all these forcible means not well used will set you the farther off from Heaven If the Chappel were the Bethesda of promotion what thronging would there be into it Yea if it were but some mask-house wherein a glorious though momentany show were to be presented neither white staves nor halberts could keep you out Behold here ye are offered the honour to be by this seed of regeneration the Sons of God The Kingdom of Heaven the Crown of Glory the Scepter of Majesty in one word Eternall Life is here offered and performed to you O let us not so far forget our selves as in the Ordinances of God to contemn our own Happiness But let us know the time of our visitation let us wait reverently and intentively upon this Bethesda of God that when the Angel shall descend and move the Water our Souls may be cured and through all the degrees of Grace may be carried to the full height of their Glory XXIX The Transfiguration of CHRIST THere is not in all Divinity an higher speculation then this of Christ transfigured Suffer me therefore to lead you up by the hand into mount Tabor for nearer to Heaven ye cannot come while ye are upon earth that you may see him glorious upon Earth the Region of his shame and abasement who is now glorious in Heaven the Throne of his Majesty He that would not have his transfiguration spoken of till he were raised would have it spoken of all the world over now that he is raised and ascended that by this momentany glory we may judge of the eternall The Circumstances shall be to us as the skirts of the Hill which we will climbe up lightly the Time Place Attendents Company The Time after six days the Place an high hill apart the Attendents Peter James John the Company Moses and Elias which when we have passed on the top of the hill shall appear to us that sight which shall once make us glorious and in the mean time make us happy All three Evangelists accord in the Terminus à quo that it was immediately after those words There be some of them that stand here which shall not tast of death till they have seen the Son of Man come in his Kingdom Wherein methinks the act comments upon the words Peter James and John were these some they tasted not of death till they saw this Heavenly image of the Royalty of Christ glorified But the Terminus quò disagrees a little Matthew and Mark say after six Luke post ferè octo which as they are easily reconciled by the usuall distinction of inclusivè and exclusivè necessary for all computations and Luke's about eight so methinks seems to intimate God's seventh day the Sabbath why should there be else so precise mention of six days after and about eight but to imply that day which was betwixt the sixth and eighth God's day was fittest for so Divine a work and well might that day which imported God's rest and man's glory be used for the clear representation of the rest and glory of God and man But in this conjecture for ought I know I goe alone I dare not be too resolute Certainly it was the seventh whether it were that seventh the seventh after the promise of the glory of his Kingdom exhibited and this perhaps not without a mystery God teacheth both by words and acts saith Hilary that after six Ages of the world should be Christ 's glorious appearance and our transfiguration with him But I know what our Saviour's farewell was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not for us to know But if we may not know we may conjecture yet not above that we ought saith S. Paul we may not super sapere as Tertullian's phrase
is For the Place tradition hath taken it still for Tabor I list not to cross it without warrant This was an high Hill indeed thirty furlongs high saith Josephus mirâ rotunditate sublimis saith Hierome and so steep that some of our English travellers that have desired to climbe it of late have been glad to give it up in the mid-way and to measure the rest with their eyes Doubtless this Hill was a Symbol of Heaven being near it as in situation in resemblance Heaven is expressed usually by the name of God's hill and Nature or this appellation taught the Heathens to figure it by their Olympus All Divine affairs of any magnificence were done on Hills On the hill of Sinai was the Law delivered on the hill of Moriah was Isaac to be sacrificed whence Abraham's posie is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In monte providebitur on the hill of Rephidim stood Moses with the rod of God in his stretched hand and figured him crucified upon the hill whom Joshua figured victorious in the valley on the hills of Ebal and Gerizim were the Blessings and Curses on Carmel was Eliah's sacrifice the Phrontisteria Schools or Universities of the Prophets were still Ramah and Gibeah Excelsa High places who knows not that on the hill of Sion stood the Temple I have looked up to the hills saith the Psalmist And Idolatry in imitation had its hill-altars On the mount of Olives was Christ wont to send up his Prayers and sent up himself And here Luke saith he went up to an high hill to pray not for that God makes difference of places to whose immensity Heaven it self is a valley It was an heathenish conceit of those Aramites that God is Deus montium the God of the mountains But because we are commonly more disposed to good by either the freedome of our scope to Heaven or the awfulness or solitary silence of places which as one saith strikes a kind of adoration into us or by our locall removall from this attractive body of the earth howsoever when the body sees it self above the earth the eye of the Mind is more easily raised to her Heaven It is good to take all advantage of place setting aside superstition to further our Devotion Aaron and Hur were in the mountain with Moses and held up his hands Aaron say some Allegorists is mountainous Hur fiery Heavenly meditation and the fire of Charity must lift up our prayers to God As Satan carried up Christ to an high hill to tempt him so he carries up himself to be freed from temptation and distraction If ever we would be transfigured in our dispositions we must leave the earth below and abandon all worldly thoughts Venite ascendamus O come let us climbe up to the hill where God sees or is seen saith devout Bernard O all ye cares distractions thoughtfulness labours pains servitudes stay me here with this Ass my Body till I with the Boy that is my Reason and Vnderstanding shall worship and return saith the same Father wittily alluding to the journey of Abraham for his sacrifice Wherefore then did Christ climbe up this high hill Not to look about him but saith S. Luke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pray not for prospect but for devotion that his thoughts might climbe up yet nearer to Heaven Behold how Christ entred upon all his great works with Prayers in his mouth When he was to enter into that great work of his Humiliation in his Passion he went into the garden to pray when he is to enter into this great work of his Exaltation in his Transfiguring he went up into the mountain to pray he was taken up from his knees to both O noble example of Piety and Devotion to us He was God that prayed the God that he prayed to he might have commanded yet he prayed that we men might learn of him to pray to him What should we men dare to doe without prayers when he that was God would doe nothing without them The very heathen Poet could say A Jove principium and which of those verse-mongers ever durst write a ballad without imploring of some Deity which of the heathens durst attempt any great enterprise insalutato numine without invocation and sacrifice Saul himself would play the Priest and offer a burnt-offering to the Lord rather then the Philistins should fight with him unsupplicated as thinking any devotion better then none and thinking it more safe to sacrifice without a Priest then to fight without Prayers Vngirt unblest was the old word as not ready till they were girded so not till they had prayed And how dare we rush into the affairs of God or the State how dare we thrust our selves into actions either perillous or important without ever lifting up our eyes and hearts unto the God of Heaven Except we would say as the devillish malice of Surius slanders that zealous Luther Nec propter Deum haec res coepta est nec propter Deum finietur c. This business was neither begun for God nor shall be ended for him How can God bless us if we implore him not how can we prosper if he bless us not How can we hope ever to be transfigured from a lump of corrupt flesh if we do not ascend and pray As the Samaritan woman said weakly we may seriously The well of mercies is deep if thou hast nothing to draw with never look to tast of the waters of life I fear the worst of men Turks and the worst Turks the Moors shall rise up in Judgement against many Christians with whom it is a just exception against any witness by their Law that he hath not prayed six times in each naturall day Before the day break they pray for day when it is day they give God thanks for day at noon they thank God for half the day past after that they pray for a good Sun-set after that they thank God for the day passed and lastly pray for a good night after their day And we Christians suffer so many Suns and Moons to rise and set upon our heads and never lift up our hearts to their Creatour and ours either to ask his blessing or to acknowledge it Of all men under Heaven none had so much need to pray as Courtiers That which was done but once to Christ is always done to them They are set upon the hill and see the glory of the Kingdoms of earth but I fear it is seen of them as it is with some of the Mariners The more need the less devotion Ye have seen the Place see the Attendents He would not have many because he would not have it yet known to all hence was his intermination and sealing up their mouths with a Nemini dicite Tell no man Not none because he would not have it altogether unknown and afterwards would have it known to all Three were a legall number in ore duorum aut trium in the mouth of two or three witnesses He had
and foretold his departure as S. Luke tells us Foretold not to him who knew it before yea who told it them they could not have known it but from him he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Word of his Father they told but that which he before had told his Disciples and now these Heavenly witnesses tell it over again for confirmation Like as John Baptist knew Christ before he was Vox clamantis the Voice of a crier the other Verbum Patris the Word of his Father there is great affinity betwixt vox and verbum yea this voice had uttered it self clearly Ecce Agnus Dei Behold the Lamb of God yet he sends his Disciples with an Art thou he that he might confirm to them by him that which he both knew and had said of him So our Saviour follows his Fore-runner in this that what he knew and had told his Disciples the other Elias the typicall John Baptist and Moses must make good to their belief This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 departure of Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word both hard and harsh hard to believe and harsh in believing The Disciples thought of nothing but a Kingdome a Kingdome restored magnificently interminably and two of these three witnesses had so swallowed this hope that they had put in for places in the State to be his chief Peers How could they think of a parting The throne of David did so fill their eyes that they could not see his Cross and if they must let down this Pill how bitter must it needs be His presence was their joy and life it was their death to think of his loss Now therefore that they might see that his Sufferings and Death were not of any sudden impotence but predetermined in Heaven and revealed to the Saints two of the most noted Saints in Heaven shall second the news of his departure and that in the midst of his Transfiguration that they could not chuse but think He that can be thus happy needs not be miserable that Passion which he will undergoe is not out of weakness but out of Love It is wittily noted by that sweet Chrysostome that Christ never lightly spake of his Passion but immediately before and after he did some great Miracle And here answerably in the midst of his miraculous Transfiguration the two Saints speak of his Passion A strange opportunity In his highest Exaltation to speak of his Sufferings to talk of Calvary in Tabor when his Head shone with glory to tell him how it must bleed with thorns when his Face shone like the Sun to tell him it must be blubbered and spat upon when his Garments glistered with that celestial brightness to tell him they must be stripped and divided when he was adored by the Saints of Heaven to tell him how he must be scorned by the basest of men when he was seen between two Saints to tell him how he must be seen between two Malefactours in a word in the midst of his Divine Majesty to tell him of his shame and whilst he was Transfigured in the Mount to tell him how he must be disfigured upon the Cross Yet these two Heavenly Prophets found this the fittest time for this discourse rather chusing to speak of his Sufferings in the height of his Glory then of his Glory after his Sufferings It is most seasonable in our best to think of our worst estate for both that thought will be best digested when we are well and that change will be best prepared for when we are the farthest from it You would perhaps think it unseasonable for me in the midst of all your Court-jollity to tell you of the days of mourning and with that great King to serve in a Death's head amongst your Royall dishes to shew your Coffins in the midst of your Triumphs yet these precedents above exception shew me that no time is so fit as this Let me therefore say to you with the Psalmist I have said Ye are Gods if ye were Transfigured in Tabor could ye be more but ye shall die like men there is your 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was a worthy and witty note of Hierome that amongst all trees the Cedars are bidden to praise God which are the tallest and yet Dies Domini super omnes Cedros Libani Esa 2. Ye Gallants whom a little yellow earth and the webs of that curious worm have made gorgeous without and perhaps proud within remember that ere long as one worm decks you without so another worm shall consume you within and that both the earth that you pranck up and that earth wherewith you pranck it is running back into dust Let not your high estate hide from you your fatall humiliation let not not your Purples hide from you your Winding-sheet But even on the top of Tabor think of the depth of the Grave think of your departure from men while ye are advanced above men We are now ascended to the top of the Hill Let us therefore stand and see and wonder at this great sight as Moses to see the bush flaming and not consumed so we to see the Humanity continuing it self in the midst of these beams of Glory Christ was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith S. Paul in the form of a servant now for the time he was truly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transformed That there is no cause why Maldonat should so inveigh against some of ours yea of his own as Jansenius who translates it Transformation for what is the externall form but the figure and their own Vulgar as hotly as he takes it reads it Philip. 2.7 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 formam servi accipiens There is no danger in this ambiguity Not the substantiall form but the external fashion of Christ was changed he having three forms as Bernard distinguishes contemptam splendidam Divinam changeth here the first into the second This is one of the rarest occurrences that ever befell the Saviour of the World I am wont to reckon up these four principall wonders of his life Incarnation Temptation Transfiguration and Agony the first in the womb of the Virgin the second in the Wilderness the third in the Mount the fourth in the Garden the first that God should become Man the second that God and Man should be tempted and transported by Satan the third that Man should be glorified upon earth the last that he which was Man and God should sweat bloud under the sense of God's wrath for man And all these either had the Angels for witnesses or the immediate voice of God The first had Angels singing the second Angels ministring the third the voice of God thundring the fourth the Angels comforting that it may be no wonder the Earth marvels at those things whereat the Angels of Heaven stand amazed Bernard makes three kinds of wonderfull changes Sublimitas in Humilitatem Height to lowliness when the Word took flesh Contemptibilitas in Majestatem when Christ transformed himself before his
Disciples Mutabilitas in Aeternitatem when he rose again and ascended to Heaven to reign for ever Ye see this is one of them and as Tabor did rise out of the valley of Galilee so this Exaltation did rise out of the midst of Christ's Humiliation Other marvels do increase his dejection this onely makes for his Glory and the glory of this is matchable with the humiliation of all the rest That Face wherein before saith Esay there was no form nor beauty now shines as the Sun That Face which men hid their faces from in contempt now shines so that mortall eyes could not chuse but hide themselves from the luster of it and immortall receive their beams from it He had ever in vultu sidereum quiddam as Hierome speaks a certain heavenly Majesty and port in his countenance which made his Disciples follow him at first sight but now here was the perfection of supercelestiall brightness It was a Miracle in the Three Children that they so were delivered from the flames that their very garments smelt not of the fire it is no less Miracle in Christ that his very garments were dyed Celestiall and did savour of his Glory like as Aaron was so anointed on his head and beard that his skirts were all perfumed His cloaths therefore shined as snow yea that were but a waterish white as the Light it self saith S. Mark and Matthew in the most Greek Copies That seamless Coat as it had no welt so it had no spot The King's Son is all fair even without O excellent Glory of his Humanity The best Diamond or Carbuncle is hid with a case but this brightness pierceth through all his garments and makes them lightsome in him which use to conceal light in others Herod put him on in mockage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Luke 23. not a white but a bright robe the ignorance whereof makes a shew of disparity in the Evangelists but God the Father to glorifie him cloaths his very garments with Heavenly splendour Behold thou art fair my beloved behold thou art fair and there is no spot in thee Thine head is as fine gold thy mouth is as sweet things and thou art wholly delectable Come forth ye daughters of Sion and behold King Solomon with the Crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of the gladness of his heart O Saviour if thou wert such in Tabor what art thou in Heaven if this were the glory of thy Humanity what is the presence of thy Godhead Let no man yet wrong himself so much as to magnifie this happiness as another's and to put himself out of the participation of this glory Christ is our head we are his members As we all were in the First Adam both innocent and sinning so are we in the Second Adam both shining in Tabor and bleeding sweat in the Garden And as we are already happy in him so shall we be once in our selves by and through him He shall change our vile bodies that they may be like his glorious body Behold our pattern and rejoyce like his glorious body These very bodies that are now cloddy like the earth shall once be bright as the Sun and we that now see clay in one anothers faces shall then see nothing but Heaven in our countenances and we that now set forth our bodies with cloaths shall then be cloathed upon with Immortality out of the wardrobe of Heaven And if ever any painted face should be admitted to the sight of this Glory as I much fear it yea I am sure God will have none but true faces in Heaven they would be ashamed to think that ever they had faces to daub with these beastly pigments in comparison of this Heavenly complexion Let us therefore look upon this flesh not so much with contempt of what it was and is as with a joyfull hope of what it shall be And when our courage is assaulted with the change of these bodies from healthfull to weak from living to dead let us comfort our selves with the assurance of this change from dust to incorruption We are not so sure of death as of transfiguration All the days of our appointed time we will therefore wait till our changing shall come Now from the Glory of the Master give me leave to turn your eyes to the Errour of the Servant who having slept with the rest and now suddenly awaking knoweth not whether he slept still To see such a light about him three so glittering persons before him made him doubt now as he did after when he was carried by the Angel through the iron gate whether it were a pleasing dream or a real act All slept and now all waked onely Peter slept waking and I know not whether more erred in his speech or in his sleep It was a shame for a man to sleep in Tabor but it is more a shame for a man to dream with his eyes open Thus did Peter Master it is good for us to be here Let us make us three Tabernacles I could well say with Optatus in this or any other occasion Ipsius Sancti Petri beatitudo veniam tribuat dubito dicere peccâsse tantam Sanctitatem Let blessed Peter pardon me I fear to say so great Holiness offended Yet since our adversaries are so over-partiall to this worthy Saint in whom they have as little as they boast much that they can be content his praise should blemish the dignity of all the rest yea that God himself is in danger to be a loser by the advancement of so dear a Servant give me leave to lay my finger a little upon this blot God would never have recorded that which it should be uncharitable for us to observe It was the injurious kindness of Marcion in honour of Peter to leave out the story of Malchus as Epiphanius notes It shall be our blame if we do not so note that we benefit our selves even by his imperfections S. Mark 's Gospel is said to be Peter's O blessed Apostle can it be any wrong to say of thee that which thou hast written of thy self not for insultation not for exprobration God forbid but that men may be ashamed to give that to him which he hath denied to himself Let me therefore not doubt to say with reverence to so great a Saint that as he spake most so he is noted to have erred most Not to meddle with his sinking striking Judaizing one while we find him carnally insinuating another while carnally presuming one while weakly denying another while rashly misconstruing Carnally insinuating Master favour thy self Which though some Parasites of Rome would fain smooth up that he in this shewed his Love to Christ as before his Faith out of S. Hierome and S. Austin yet it must needs be granted which Bernard saith diligebat Spiritum carnaliter he loved the Spirit in a carnal fashion Let them chuse whether they will admit Christ to have chid unjustly or Peter worthy of chiding Except perhaps with
slippery What difference is there betwixt his curse and the happiness of the Ambitious but this That the way of the one is dark and slippery the way of the other lightsome and slippery that dark that they may fall this light that they may see and be seen to fall Please your selves then ye great ones and let others please you in the admiration of your height But if your goodness do not answer your greatness Sera querela est quoniam elevans allisisti me It is a late complaint Thou hast lift me up to cast me down Your ambition hath but set you up a scaffold that your misery might be more notorious And yet these clients of Honour say Bonum est esse hîc The pampered Glutton when he seeth his table spred with full bowls with costly dishes and curious sauces the dainties of all three elements says Bonum est esse hîc And yet eating hath a satiety and satiety a wearînest his heart is never more empty of contentment then when his stomack is fullest of Delicates When he is empty he is not well till he be filled when he is full he is not well till he have got a stomack Et momentanea blandimenta gulae stercoris fine condemnat saith Hierom And he condemns all the momentany pleasures of his maw to the dunghill And when he sits at his feasts of marrow and fat things as the Prophet speaks his table according to the Psalmist's imprecation is made his snare a true snare every way his Soul is caught in it with excess his estate with penury his Body with diseases Neither doth he more plainly tear his meat in pieces with his teeth then he doth himself And yet this vain man says Bonum est esse hîc The petulant Wanton thinks it the onely happiness that he may have his full scope to filthy dalliance Little would he so doe if he could see his Strumpet as she is her eyes the eyes of a Cockatrice her hairs snakes her painted face the visor of a fury her heart snares her hands bands and her end wormwood consumption of the flesh destruction of the Soul and the flames of lust ending in the flames of Hell Since therefore neither Pleasures nor Honour nor Wealth can yield any true contentment to their best favourites let us not be so unwise as to speak of this vale of misery as Peter did of the hill of Tabor Bonum est esse hîc And if the best of earth cannot doe it why will ye seek it in the worst How dare any of you great ones seek to purchase contentment with Oppression Sacrilege Bribery out-facing innocence and truth with power damning your own Souls for but the humouring of a few miserable days Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde ad quid diligitis vanitatem quaeritis mendacium O ye sons of men how long c But that which moved Peter's desire though with imperfection shews what will perfect our desire and felicity for if a glimpse of this Heavenly glory did so ravish this worthy Disciple that he thought it happiness enough to stand by and gaze upon it how shall we be affected with the contemplation yea fruition of the Divine Presence Here was but Tabor there is Heaven here were but two Saints there many millions of Saints and Angels here was Christ transfigured there he sits at the right hand of Majesty here was a representation there a gift and possession of Blessedness Oh that we could now forget the world and fixing our eyes upon this better Tabor say Bonum est esse hîc Alas this life of ours if it were not short yet it is miserable and if it were not miserable yet it is short Tell me ye that have the greatest Command on earth whether this vile world have ever afforded you any sincere contentation The world is your servant if it were your Parasite yet could it make you heartily merry Ye delicatest Courtiers tell me if Pleasure it self have not an unpleasant tediousness hanging upon it and more sting then honey And whereas all happiness even here below is in the vision of God how is our spirituall eye hindered as the body is from his Object by darkness by false light by aversion Darkness he that doeth sin is in darkness False light whilst we measure eternal things by temporary Aversion whilst as weak eyes hate the light we turn our eyes from the true and immutable good to the fickle and uncertain We are not on the hill but in the valley where we have tabernacles not of our own making but of clay and such as wherein we are witnesses of Christ not transfigured in glory but blemished with dishonour dishonoured with oaths and blasphemies re-crucified with our sins witnesses of God's Saints not shining in Tabor but mourning in darkness and in stead of that Heavenly brightness cloathed with sackcloath and ashes Then and there we shall have tabernacles not made with hands eternall in the heavens where we shall see how sweet the Lord is we shall see the triumphs of Christ we shall hear and sing the Hallelujahs of Saints Quae nunc nos angit vesania vitiorum sitire absynthium c saith that devout Father Oh! how hath our corruption bewitched us to thirst for this wormwood to affect the shipwrecks of this world to dote upon the misery of this fading life and not rather to fly up to the felicity of Saints to the society of Angels to that blessed contemplation wherein we shall see God in himself God in us our selves in him There shall be no sorrow no pain no complaint no fear no death There is no malice to rise against us no misery to afflict us no hunger thirst weariness temptation to disquiet us There O there one day is better then a thousand There is rest from our labours peace from our enemies freedome from our sins How many clouds of discontentment darken the Sunshine of our joy while we are here below Vae nobis qui vivimus plangere quae pertulimus dolere quae sentimus timere quae exspectamus Complaint of evils past sense of present fear of future have shared our lives amongst them Then shall we be semper laeti semper satiati always joyfull always satisfied with the vision of that God in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Shall we see that heathen Cleombrotus abandoning his life and casting himself down from the rock upon an uncertain noise of immortality and shall not we Christians abandon the wicked superfluities of life the pleasures of sin for that life which we know more certainly then this What stick we at my beloved Is there a Heaven or is there none have we a Saviour there or have we none We know there is a Heaven as sure as that there is an earth below us we know we have a Saviour there as sure as there are men that we converse with upon earth we know
more shall the King of Heaven give this immunity to his onely and natural Son so as in true reason I might challenge an exemption for me and my train Thou mightest O Saviour and no less challenge a tribute of all the Kings of the earth to thee by whom all powers are ordained Reason cannot mutter against this claim the creature owes it self and whatsoever it hath to the Maker he owes nothing to it Then are the children free He that hath right to all needs not pay any thing else there should be a subjection in Sovereignty and men should be debtours to themselves But this right was thine own peculiar and admits no partners why dost thou speak of children as of more and extending this privilege to Peter say Lest we scandalize them Was it for that thy Disciples being of thy robe might justly seem interessed in the liberties of their Master Surely no otherwise were they children no otherwise free Away with that fanatical conceit which challenges an immunity from secular commands and taxes to a spiritual and adoptative Sonship no earthly Saintship can exempt us from tribute to whom tribute belongeth There is a freedom O Saviour which our Christianity calls us to affect a freedom from the yoke of Sin and Satan from the servitude of our corrupt affections we cannot be Sons if we be not thus free Oh free thou us by thy free Spirit from the miserable bondage of our Nature so shall the children be free but as to these secular duties no man is less free then the children O Saviour thou wert free and wouldst not be so thou wert free by natural right wouldst not be free by voluntary dispensation Lest an offence might be taken Surely had there followed an offence it had been taken onely and not given Woe be to the man by whom the offence cometh It cometh by him that gives it it cometh by him that takes it when it is not given no part of this blame could have cleaved unto thee either way Yet such was thy goodness that thou wouldst not suffer an offence unjustly taken at that which thou mightest justly have denied How jealous should we be even of others perils how carefull so to moderate our power in the use of lawfull things that our Charity may prevent others scandalls to remit of our own right for another's safety Oh the deplorable condition of those wilfull men who care not what blocks they lay in the way to Heaven not forbearing by a known leudness to draw others into their own damnation To avoid the unjust offence even of very Publicans Jesus will work a Miracle Peter is sent to the sea and that not with a net but with an hook The Disciple was now in his own trade He knew a net might inclose many fishes an hook could take but one with that hook must he go angle for the Tribute-money A fish shall bring him a stater in her mouth and that fish that bites first What an unusual bearer is here what an unlikely element to yield a piece of ready coin Oh that Omnipotent power which could command the fish to be both his treasurer to keep his silver and his purveyour to bring it Now whether O Saviour thou causedst this fish to take up that shekel out of the bottom of the sea or whether by thine Almighty word thou mad'st it in an instant in the mouth of that fish it is neither possible to determine nor necessary to inquire I rather adore thine infinite Knowledge and Power that couldst make use of unlikeliest means that couldst serve thy self of the very fishes of the sea in a business of earthly and civil imployment It was not out of need that thou didst this though I do not find that thou ever affectedst a full purse What veins of Gold or mines of Silver did not lie open to thy command But out of a desire to teach Peter that whilst he would be tributary to Caesar the very fish of the sea was tributary to him How should this incourage our dependence upon that Omnipotent hand of thine which hath Heaven earth sea at thy disposing Still thou art the same for thy Members which thou wert for thy self the Head Rather then offence shall be given to the world by a seeming neglect of thy dear children thou wilt cause the very fowls of Heaven to bring them meat and the fish of the sea to bring them money O let us look up ever to thee by the eye of our Faith and not be wanting in our dependence upon thee who canst not be wanting in thy Providence over us XL. Lazarus Dead OH the Wisedom of God in penning his own story The Disciple whom Jesus loved comes after his fellow-Evangelists that he might glean up those rich ears of history which the rest had passed over That Eagle soars high and towrs up by degrees It was much to turn water into wine but it was more to feed five thousand with five loaves It was much to restore the Ruler's son it was more to cure him that had been 38 years a cripple It was much to cure him that was born blind it was more to raise up Lazarus that had been so song dead As a stream runs still the stronger and wider the nearer it comes to the Ocean whence it was derived so didst thou O Saviour work the more powerfully the nearer thou drewest to thy Glory This was as one of thy last so of thy greatest Miracles when thou wert ready to die thy self thou raisedst him to life who smelt strong of the grave None of all the sacred Histories is so full and punctuall as this in the report of all circumstances Other Miracles do not more transcend Nature then this transcends other Miracles This alone was a sufficient eviction of thy Godhead O Blessed Saviour none but an infinite power could so far goe beyond Nature as to recall a man four days dead from not a mere privation but a settled corruption Earth must needs be thine from which thou raisest his body Heaven must needs be thine from whence thou fetchest his Spirit None but he that created man could thus make him new Sickness is the common preface to death no mortall nature is exempted from this complaint even Lazarus whom Jesus loved is sick What can strength of Grace or dearness of respect prevail against disease against dissolution It was a stirring message that Mary sent to Jesus He whom thou lovest is sick as if she would imply that his part was no less deep in Lazarus then hers Neither doth she say He that loves thee is sick but He whom thou lovest not pleading the merit of Lazarus his affection to Christ but the mercy and favour of Christ to him Even that other reflexion of love had been no weak motive for O Lord thou hast said Because he hath set his love upon me therefore will I deliver him Thy goodness will not be behind us for love who professest to love
find leisure to bestow our commiseration on those who need it perhaps less then our selves Even now O Saviour when thou wert within the view of thy Calvary thou canst foresee and pity the vastation of thy Jerusalem and givest a sad Prophecy of the imminent destruction of that City which lately had cost thee tears and now shall cost thee bloud It is not all the indign cruelty of men that can rob thee of thy Mercy Jerusalem could not want Malefactours though Barabbas was dismissed That all this execution might seem to be done out of the zeal of Justice two capital offenders adjudged to their Gibbet shall accompany thee O Saviour both to thy death and in it They are led manicled after thee as less criminous no stripes had disabled them from bearing their own Crosses Long agoe was this unmeet society foretold by thine Evangelical Seer He was taken from prison and from judgment He was cut out of the land of the living He made his grave with the Wicked O Blessed Jesu it had been disparagement enough to thee to be sorted with the best of men since there is much sin in the perfectest and there could be no sin in thee but to be matched with the scum of mankind whom vengeance would not let to live is such an indignity as confounds my thoughts Surely there is no Angel in Heaven but would have been proud to attend thee and what could the earth afford worthy of thy train yet malice hath suited thee with company next to Hell that their viciousness might reflect upon thee and their sin might stain thine Innocence Ye are deceived O ye fond Judges This is the way to grace your dying malefactours this is not the way to disgrace him whose guiltlesness and perfection triumph'd over your injustice his presence was able to make your Thieves happy their presence could no more blemish him then your own Thus guarded thus attended thus accompanied art thou Blessed Jesu led to that loathsome and infamous hill which now thy last bloud shall make Sacred now thou settest thy foot upon that rising ground which shall prevent thine Olivet whence thy Soul shall first ascend into thy Glory There whilst thou art dressing thy self for thy last Act thou art presented with that bitter and farewell-potion wherewith dying Malefactours were wont to have their senses stupified that they might not feel the torments of their execution It was but the common mercy of men to alleviate the death of Offenders since the intent of their last doom is not so much pain as dissolution That draught O Saviour was not more welcome to the guilty then hatefull unto thee In the vigour of all thine inward and outward senses thou wouldst incounter the most violent assaults of death and scornedst to abate the least touch of thy quickest apprehension Thou well knewest that the work thou wentest about would require the use of all thy powers it was not thine ease that thou soughtest but our Redemption neither meantest thou to yield to thy last enemy but to resist and to overcome him which that thou mightest doe the more gloriously thou challengedst him to doe his worst and in the mean time wouldst not disfurnish thy self of any of thy powerfull faculties This greatest combat that ever was shall be fought on even hand neither wouldst thou steal that Victory which thou now atchievedst over Death and Hell Thou didst but touch at this cup it is a far bitterer then this that thou art now drinking up to the dregs thou refusedst that which was offered thee by men but that which was mixed by thine eternal Father though mere Gall and Wormwood thou didst drink up to the last drop And therein O Blessed Jesu lies all our health and salvation I know not whether I do more suffer in thy pain or joy in the issue of thy Suffering Now even now O Saviour art thou entring into those dreadfull lists and now thou art grappling with thy last enemy as if thou hadst not suffered till now now thy bloudy Passion begins a cruell expoliation begins that violence Again do these grim and merciless Souldiers lay their rude hands upon thee and strip thee naked again are those bleeding wales lay'd open to all eyes again must thy Sacred Body undergoe the shame of an abhorred nakedness Lo thou that cloathest man with raiment beasts with hides fishes with scales and shells earth with flowers Heaven with Stars art despoiled of cloaths and standest exposed to the scorn of all beholders As the First Adam entred into his Paradise so dost thou the Second Adam into thine naked and as the First Adam was cloathed with Innocence when he had no cloaths so wert thou the Second too and more then so thy nakedness O Saviour cloaths our Souls not with Innocence onely but with Beauty Hadst not thou been naked we had been cloathed with confusion O happy nakedness whereby we are covered from shame O happy shame whereby we are invested with glory All the beholders stand wrapped with warm garments thou onely art stripped to tread the wine-press alone How did thy Blessed Mother now wish her veil upon thy shoulders and that Disciple who lately ran from thee naked wish'd in vain that his loving pity might doe that for thee which fear forced him to for himself Shame is succeeded with Pain Oh the torment of the Cross Methinks I see and feel how having fastned the transverse to the body of that fatal Tree and laid it upon the ground they racked and strained thy tender and sacred Lims to fit the extent of their fore-appointed measure and having tentered out thine arms beyond their natural reach how they fastned them with cords till those strong iron nails which were driven up to the head through the palms of thy Blessed hands had not more firmly then painfully fixed thee to the Gibbet The tree is raised up and now not without a vehement concussion settled in the mortise Woe is me how are thy joynts and sinews torn and stretched till they crack again by this torturing distension how doth thine own weight torment thee whilst thy whole body rests upon this forced and dolorous hold till thy nailed feet bear their part in a no-less-afflictive supportation How did the rough iron pierce thy Soul whilst passing through those tender and sensible parts it carried thy flesh before it and as it were rivetted it to that shamefull Tree There now O dear Jesu there thou hangest between Heaven and earth naked bleeding forlorn despicable the spectacle of miseries the scorn of men Be abashed O ye Heavens and earth and all ye creatures wrap up your selves in horrour and confusion to see the shame and pain and curse of your most pure and Omnipotent Creatour How could ye subsist whilst he thus suffers in whom ye are O Saviour didst thou take flesh for our Redemption to be thus indignly used thus mangled thus tortured Was this measure fit to be offered to that Sacred
thing here had horrour The Place both solitary and a Sepulcher Nature abhors as the visage so the region of Death and Corruption The Time Night onely the Moon gave them some faint glimmering for this being the seventeenth day of her age afforded some light to the latter part of the night The Business the visitation of a dead Corps Their zealous Love hath easily overcome all these They had followed him in his Sufferings when the Disciples left him they attended him to his Cross weeping they followed him to his Grave and saw how Joseph laid him even there they leave him not but ere it be day-light return to pay him the last tribute of their duty How much stronger is Love then death O Blessed Jesu why should not we imitate thy love to us Those whom thou lovest thou lovest to the end yea in it yea after it even when we are dead not our Souls onely but our very dust is dearly respected of thee What condition of thine should remove our affections from thy person in Heaven from thy lims on earth Well did these worthy Women know what Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus had done to thee they saw how curiously they had wrapped thee how preciously they had embalmed thee yet as not thinking others beneficence could be any just excuse of theirs they bring their own Odours to thy Sepulture to be perfumed by the touch of thy Sacred Body What thank is it to us that others are obsequious to thee whilst we are slack or niggardly We may rejoyce in others forwardness but if we rest in it how small joy shall it be to us to see them go to Heaven without us When on the Friday-evening they attended Joseph to the intombing of Jesus they mark'd the place they mark'd the passage they mark'd that inner grave-stone which the owner had fitted to the mouth of that tomb which all there care is now to remove Who shall roll away the stone That other more weighty load wherewith the vault was barred the seal the guard set upon both came not perhaps into their knowledge this was the private plot of Pilate and the Priests beyond the reach of their thoughts I do not hear them say How shall we recover the charges of our Odours or How shall we avoid the envy and censure of our angry Elders for honouring him whom the Governours of our Nation have thought worthy of condemnation The onely thought they now take is Who shall roll away the stone Neither do they stay at home and move this doubt but when they are well forward on their way resolving to try the issue Good hearts cannot be so solicitous for any thing under Heaven as for removing those impediments which lie between them and their Saviour O Blessed Jesu thou who art clearly revealed in Heaven art yet still both hid and sealed up from too many here on earth Neither is it some thin veil that is spred between thee and them but an huge stone even a true stone of offence lies rolled upon the mouth of their hearts Yea if a second weight were superadded to thy Grave here no less then three spirituall bars are interposed betwixt them and thee above Idleness Ignorance Unbelief Who shall roll away these stones but the same power that removed thine O Lord remove that our Ignorance that we may know thee our Idleness that we may seek thee our Unbelief that we may find and enjoy thee How well it succeeds when we go faithfully and conscionably about our work and leave the issue to God Lo now God hath removed the cares of these holy Women together with the grave-stone To the wicked that falls out which they feared to the Godly that which they wished and cared for yea more Holy cares ever prove well the worldly dry the bones and disappoint the hopes Could these good Visitants have known of a greater stone sealed of a strong watch set their doubts had been doubled now God goes beyond their thoughts and at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designs of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creatour What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisedom nor counsell against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviour's Resurrection The Earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of Earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whilst thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundest thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvell if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowells Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendence to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lie obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels
of those eyes whom thou wouldst bless with the sight of thee thou wert seen indeed of five hundred at once but they were Brethren So in thine Ascension thou didst not carry all Jerusalem promiscuously forth with thee to see thy glorious departure but onely that selected company of thy Disciples which had attended thee in thy life Those who immediately upon thine ascending returned to Jerusalem were an hundred and twenty persons a competent number of witnesses to verify that thy miraculous and triumphant passage into thy Glory Lo those onely were thought worthy to behold thy majesticall Ascent which had been partners with thee in thy Humiliation Still thou wilt have it thus with us O Saviour and we embrace the condition if we will converse with thee in thy lowly estate here upon earth wading with thee through contempt and manifold afflictions we shall be made happy with the sight and communion of thy Glory above O my Soul be thou now if ever ravished with the contemplation of this comfortable and blessed farewell of thy Saviour What a sight was this how full of joyfull assurance of spirituall consolation Methinks I see it still with their eyes how thou my glorious Saviour didst leisurely and insensibly rise up from thine Olivet taking leave of thine acclaiming Disciples now left below thee with gracious eyes with Heavenly benedictions Methinks I see how they followed thee with eager and longing eyes with arms lifted up as if they had wished them winged to have soared up after thee And if Eliah gave assurance to his servant Elisha that if he should behold him in that rapture his Master's Spirit should be doubled upon him what an accession of the spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to thy happy Disciples in seeing thee thus gradually rising up to thy Heaven Oh how unwillingly did their intentive eyes let go so Blessed an Object How unwelcome was that Cloud that interposed it self betwixt thee and them and closing up it self left onely a glorious splendour behind it as the bright track of thine Ascension Of old here below the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Cloud now afar off in the sky the Cloud intercepted this Heavenly Glory if distance did not rather doe it then that bright meteor Their eyes attended thee on thy way so far as their beams would reach when they could goe no farther the Cloud received thee Lo yet even that very screen whereby thou wert taken off from all earthly view was no other then glorious how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon that Cloud then upon the best piece of the Firmament Never was the Sun it self gazed on with so much intention With what long looks with what astonished acclamations did these transported beholders follow thee their ascending Saviour as if they would have look'd through that Cloud and that Heaven that hid thee from them But oh what tongue of the highest Archangel of Heaven can express the welcome of thee the King of Glory into those Blessed Regions of Immortality Surely the Empyreall Heaven never resounded with so much joy God ascended with jubilation and the Lord with the sound of the Trumpet It is not for us weak and finite creatures to wish to conceive those incomprehensible spirituall Divine gratulations that the Glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now-glorified Humane nature Certainly if when he brought his onely-begotten Son into the world he said Let all the Angels worship him much more now that he ascends on high and hath led captivity captive hath he given him a Name above all names that at the Name of JESVS all knees should bow And if the Holy Angels did so carol at his Birth in the very entrance into that estate of Humiliation and infirmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect atchievement of Man's Redemption And if when his type had vanquished Goliah and carried the head into Jerusalem the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and timbrels how shall we think those Angelicall Spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conquerour of Hell and Death How did they sing Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Surely as he shall come so he went and behold he shall come with thousands of his Holy ones thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him From all whom methinks I hear that blessed applause Worthy is the Lamb that was killed to receive power and riches and wisedom and strength and honour and glory and praise Praise and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for evermore And why dost not thou O my Soul help to bear thy part with that happy Quire of Heaven Why art not thou rapt out of my bosome with an ecstasy of joy to see this Humane nature of ours exalted above all the Powers of Heaven adored of Angels Archangels Cherubin Seraphim and all those mighty and glorious Spirits and sitting there crowned with infinite Glory and Majesty Although little would it avail thee that our Nature is thus honoured if the benefit of this Ascension did not reflect upon thee How many are miserable enough in themselves notwithstanding the Glory of their humane nature in Christ None but those that are found in him are the happier by him who but the Members are the better for the glory of the Head O Saviour how should our weakness have ever hoped to climb into Heaven if thou hadst not gone before and made way for us It is for us that thou the fore-runner art entred in Now thy Church hath her wish Draw me and I shall run after thee Even so O Blessed Jesu how ambitiously should we follow thee with the paces of Love and Faith and aspire towards thy Glory Thou that art the way hast made the way to thy self and us Thou didst humble thy self and becamest obedient to the death even to the death of the Cross Therefore hath God also highly exalted thee and upon the same terms will not fail to advance us we see thy track before us of Humility and Obedience O teach me to follow thee in the roughest ways of Obedience in the bloudy paths of Death that I may at last overtake thee in those high steps of Immortality Amongst those millions of Angels that attended this triumphant Ascension of thine O Saviour some are appointed to this lower station to comfort thine astonished Disciples in the certain assurance of thy no-less-glorious Return Two men stood by them in white apparell They stood by them they were not of them they seemed Men they were Angels Men for their familiarity two for more certainty of testimony in white for the joy of thine Ascension The Angels formerly celebrated thy Nativity with Songs but we do not find they then appeared in white thou wert then to undergoe much sorrow
avoid all difference they agreed by lot to assign themselves to the severall offices of each day The lot of this day called Zachary to offer Incense in the outer Temple I do not find any prescription they had from God of this particular manner of designment Matters of good Order in holy affairs may be ruled by the wise institution of men according to reason expediency It fell out well that Zachary was chosen by lot to this ministration that God's immediate hand might be seen in all the passages that concerned his great Prophet that as the Person so the Occasion might be of God's own chusing In Lots and their seeming casual disposition God can give a reason though we can give none Morning and Evening twice a day their Law called them to offer Incense to God that both parts of the Day might be consecrate to the Maker of Time The outer Temple was the figure of the whole Church upon earth like as the Holy of holiest represented Heaven Nothing can better resemble our faithfull Prayers then sweet Perfume These God looks that we should all his Church over send up unto him Morning and Evening The Elevations of our Hearts should be perpetuall but if twice in the day we do not present God with our solemn Invocations we make the Gospell less officious then the Law That the resemblance of Prayers and Incense might be apparent whilst the Priest sends up his Incense within the Temple the people must send up their Prayers without Their Breath and that Incense though remote in the first rising met e're they went up to Heaven The people might no more go into the Holy place to offer up the incense of Prayers unto God then Zachary might go into the Holy of holies Whilst the partition-wall stood betwixt Jews and Gentiles there were also partitions betwixt the Jews themselves Now every man is a Priest unto God every man since the veil was rent prays within the Temple What are we the better for our greater freedome of access to God under the Gospell if we do not make use of our privilege Whilst they were praying to God he sees an Angel of God As Gideon's Angel went up in the smoak of the sacrifice so did Zachary's Angel as it were come down in the fragrant smoak of his incense It was ever great news to see an Angel of God but now more because God had long withdrawn from them all the means of his supernaturall Revelations As this wicked people were strangers to their God in their Conversation so was God grown a stranger to them in his Apparitions yet now that the season of the Gospell approached he visited them with his Angels before he visited them by his Son He sends his Angel to men in the form of man before he sends his Son to take humane form The Presence of Angels is no novelty but their Apparition they are always with us but rarely seen that we may awfully respect their messages when they are seen In the mean time our faith may see them though our senses do not Their assumed shapes do not make them more present but visible There is an Order in that heavenly Hierarchie though we know it not This Angel that appeared to Zachary was not with him in the ordinary course of his attendences but was purposely sent from God with this message Why was an Angel sent and why this Angel It had been easie for him to have raised up the propheticall spirit of some Simeon to this prediction the same Holy Ghost which revealed to that just man that he should not see death e're he had seen the Messias might have as easily revealed unto him the Birth of the Forerunner of Christ and by him to Zachary But God would have this Voice which should goe before his Son come with a noise He would have it appear to the world that the Harbinger of the Messiah should be conceived by the marvellous power of that God whose coming he proclaimed It was fit the first Herald of the Gospel should begin in wonder The same Angel that came to the Blessed Virgin with the news of Christ's Conception came to Zachary with the news of John's for the honour of him that was the greatest of them which were born of women and for his better resemblance to him which was the Seed of the woman Both had the Gospell for their errand one as the Messenger of it the other as the Authour Both are foretold by the same mouth When could it be more fit for the Angel to appear unto Zachary then when Prayers and Incense were offered by him Where could he more fitly appear then in the Temple in what part of the Temple more fitly then at the Altar of Incense and whereabouts rather then on the right side of the Altar Those glorious spirits as they are always with us so most in our Devotions and as in all places so most of all in God's House They rejoyce to be with us whilst we are with God as contrarily they turn their faces from us when we goe about our Sins He that had wont to live and serve in the presence of the Master was now astonished at the presence of the Servant So much difference there is betwixt our Faith and our Senses that the apprehension of the presence of the God of Spirits by faith goes down sweetly with us whereas the sensible apprehension of an Angel dismays us Holy Zachary that had wont to live by Faith thought he should die when his Sense began to be set on work It was the weakness of him that served at the Altar without horrour to be daunted with the face of his Fellow-servant In vain do we look for such Ministers of God as are without infirmities when just Zachary was troubled in his Devotions with that wherewith he should have been comforted It was partly the suddenness and partly the glory of the Apparition that affrighted him The good Angel was both apprehensive and compassionate of Zachary's weakness and presently incourages him with a chearfull excitation Fear not Zacharias The blessed Spirits though they do not often vocally express it do pity our humane frailties and secretly suggest comfort unto us when we perceive it not Good and evil Angels as they are contrary in estate so also in disposition The good desire to take away Fear the evil to bring it It is a fruit of that deadly enmity which is betwixt Satan and us that he would if he might kill us with terrour whereas the good Spirits affecting our relief and happiness take no pleasure in terrifying us but labour altogether for our tranquillity and chearfulness There was not more Fear in the face then Comfort in the speech Thy prayer is heard No Angel could have told him better news Our desires are uttered in our Prayers What can we wish but to have what we would Many good suits had Zachary made and amongst the rest for a Son Doubtless it
must use But though he have ceased to speak yet he ceased not to minister He takes not this Dumbness for a Dismission but stays out the eight days of his Course as one that knew the Eyes and Hands and Heart would be accepted of that God which had bereaved him of his Tongue We may not straight take occasions of withdrawing our selves from the publick Services of our God much less under the Gospell The Law which stood much upon Bodily perfection dispensed with Age for attendence The Gospell which is all for the Soul regards those inward powers which whilst they are vigorous exclude all excuses of our ministration II. The Annunciation of CHRIST THe Spirit of God was never so accurate in any description as that which concerns the Incarnation of GOD. It was fit no circumstance should be omitted in that Story whereon the Faith and Salvation of all the World dependeth We cannot so much as doubt of this truth and be saved No not the number of the Moneth not the Name of the Angel is concealed Every particle imports not more certainty then excellence The time is the sixth moneth after John's Conception the prime of the Spring Christ was conceived in the Spring born in the Solstice He in whom the World received a new Life receives Life in the same season wherein the World received its first Life from him and he which stretches out the days of his Church and lengthens them to Eternity appears after all the short and dim light of the Law and enlightens the World with his Glory The Messenger is an Angel A Man was too mean to carry the news of the Conception of God Never any business was conceived in Heaven that did so much concern the Earth as the Conception of the God of Heaven in the Womb of Earth No less then an Arch-angel was worthy to bear these tidings never any Angel received a greater honour then of this Embassage It was fit our Reparation should answer our Fall An evill Angel was the first Motioner of the one to Eve a Virgin then espoused to Adam in the Garden of Eden A good Angel is the first Reporter of the other to Mary a Virgin espoused to Joseph in that place which as the Garden of Galilee had a name from Flourishing No good Angel could be the Authour of our Restauration as that evill Angel was of our Ruine But that which those glorious Spirits could not doe themselves they are glad to report as done by the God of Spirits Good news rejoyces the bearer With what joy did this holy Angel bring the news of that Saviour in whom we are redeemed to Life himself established in Life and Glory The first Preacher of the Gospell was an Angel that Office must needs be glorious that derives it self from such a Predecessour God appointed his Angel to be the first Preacher and hath since called his Preachers Angels The Message is well suited An Angel comes to a Virgin Gabriel to Mary he that was by signification the strength of God to her that was by signification exalted by God to the conceiving of him that was the God of strength To a Maid but espoused a Maid for the honour of Virginity espoused for the honour of Marriage The Marriage was in a sort made not consummate through the instinct of him that meant to make her not an Example but a Miracle of women In this whole work God would have nothing ordinary It was fit that she should be a married Virgin which should be a Virgin-mother He that meant to take Man's nature without man's corruption would be the Son of man without man's seed would be the Seed of the Woman without Man and amongst all Women of a pure Virgin but amongst Virgins of one espoused that there might be at once a Witness and a Guardian of her fruitfull Virginity If the same God had not been the authour of Virginity and Marriage he had never countenanced Virginity by Marriage Whither doth this glorious Angel come to find the Mother of him that was God but to obscure Galilee A part which even the Jews themselves despised as forsaken of their privileges Out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet Behold an Angel comes to that Galilee out of which no Prophet comes and the God of Prophets and Angels descends to be conceived in that Galilee out of which no Prophet ariseth He that filleth all places makes no difference of places It is the Person which gives honour and privilege to the place not the Place to the person as the Presence of God makes the Heaven the Heaven doth not make the Owner glorious No blind corner of Nazareth can hide the Blessed Virgin from the Angel The Favours of God will find out his Children wheresoever they are withdrawn It is the fashion of God to seek out the most despised on whom to bestow his Honours We cannot run away as from the Judgments so from the Mercies of our God The Cottages of Galilee are preferred by God to the famous Palaces of Jerusalem he cares not how homely he converses with his own Why should we be transported with the outward glory of Places whilst our God regards it not We are not of the Angel's diet if we had not rather be with the Blessed Virgin at Nazareth then with the proud Dames in the Court of Jerusalem It is a great vanity to respect any thing above Goodness and to disesteem Goodness for any want The Angel salutes the Virgin he prays not to her He salutes her as a Saint he prays not to her as a Goddess For us to salute her as he did were gross Presumption For neither are we as he was neither is she as she was If he that was a Spirit saluted her that was Flesh and bloud here on earth it is not for us that are Flesh and bloud to salute her which is a glorious Spirit in Heaven For us to pray to her in the Angel's Salutation were to abuse the Virgin the Angel the Salutation But how gladly do we second the Angel in the praise of her who was more ours then his How justly do we bless her whom the Angel pronounceth blessed How worthily is she honoured of men whom the Angel proclaimeth beloved of God O Blessed Mary he cannot bless thee he cannot honour thee too much that deifies thee not That which the Angel said of thee thou hast prophesied of thy self we believe the Angel and thee All Generations shall call thee blessed by the fruit of whose womb all Generations are blessed If Zachary were amazed with the sight of this Angel much more the Virgin That very Sex had more disadvantage of Fear If it had been but a Man that had come to her in that secrecy and suddenness she could not but have been troubled how much more when the shining Glory of the Person doubled the Astonishment The Troubles of Holy minds end ever in Comfort Joy was the errand of the Angel and not Terrour
have seen Oft-times those which are nearest in place are farthest off in affection Large objects when they are too close to the eye do so over-fill the sense that they are not discerned What a shame is this to Bethlehem the Sages came out of the East to worship him whom that village refused The Bethlehemites were Jews the Wise men Gentiles This first entertainment of Christ was a presage of the sequell The Gentiles shall come from far to adore Christ whilst the Jews reject him Those Easterlings were great searchers of the depths of nature professed Philosophers them hath God singled out to the honour of the manifestation of Christ Humane Learning well improved makes us capable of Divine There is no Knowledge whereof God is not the Authour he would never have bestowed any gift that should lead us away from himself It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into Nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy Doubtlesse this light was visible unto more onely they followed it who knew it had more then nature He is truly wise that is wise for his own Soul If these Wise men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven and had not seen the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into utter darknesse Philosophie without this Star is but the wisp of errour These Sages were in a mean between the Angels and the Shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent Creatures have some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the Shepherds the Star guides the Sages the duller capacitie hath the more clear and powerfull helps The wisedome of our good God proportions the means unto the disposition of the persons Their Astronomy had taught them this Star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightnesse or in motion The eyes of Nature might well see that some strange news was portended to the world by it but that this Star designed the Birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the Star had not besides had the commentary of a revelation from God it could have led the Wise men onely into a fruitlesse wonder Give them to be the offspring of Balaam yet the true Prediction of that false Prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a Star out of Jacob he did not tell them that a Star should arise far from the posterity of Jacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophecy into the mouth of Balaam did also put this Illumination into the heart of the Sages The Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seek Christ when the Children of the Kingdom shall be shut out Even then God did not so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Jerusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the Mother-city of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first onely generall to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry They were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the world's that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithfull That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the Head-citie of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisedome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from Heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spirituall matters For God uses still to go a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly Truths as the profound Doctours of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethlehem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaies the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviour's Nativity If the Star had carried them directly to Bethlehem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those Prophecies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a farther advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of loss Little did the Sages think this Question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or Grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivality Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this news had been if it had faln upon Herod's own loins the more grievous it was to light upon a Stranger If Herod had not over-much affected Greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumour of a Successour and that not of his own Settled Greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his Subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forreiners could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is nettled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no less full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Sovereignty yea such a King as by whom Kings do hold their Scepters not lose them If the Wise men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he his Heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise
from mistakings If men could but know how much safety and sweetness there is in all Divine truth it could receive nothing from them but welcomes and gratulations Misconceits have been still guilty of all wrongs and persecutions But if Herod were troubled as Tyranny is still suspicious why was all Jerusalem troubled with him Jerusalem which now might hope for a relaxation of her bonds for a recovery of her liberty and right Jerusalem which now onely had cause to lift up her drooping head in the joy and happiness of a Redeemer Yet not onely Herod's Court but even Jerusalem was troubled So had this miserable City been over-toiled with change that now they were settled in a condition quietly evil they are troubled with the news of better They had now got a habit of Servility and now they are so acquainted with the yoke that the very noise of Liberty which they supposed would not come with ease began to be unwelcome To turn the causes of joy into sorrow argues extreme dejectedness and a distemper of judgment no less then desperate Fear puts on a visour of Devotion Herod calls his learned counsell and as not doubting whether the Messiah should be born he asks where he shall be born In the disparition of that other light there is a perpetually-fixed Star shining in the writings of the Prophets that guides the chief Priests and Scribes directly unto Bethlehem As yet envy and prejudice had not blinded the eyes and perverted the hearts of the Jewish Teachers so as now they clearly justifie that Christ whom they afterwards condemn and by thus justifying him condemn themselves in rejecting him The water that is untroubled yields the visage perfectly If God had no more witness but from his enemies we have ground enough of our faith Herod feared but dissembled his fear as thinking it a shame that strangers should see there could any power arise under him worthy of his respect or awe Out of an unwillingness therefore to discover the impotency of his passion he makes little adoe of the matter but onely after a privy inquisition into the time imploys the informers in the search of the person Goe and search diligently for the Babe c. It was no great journey from Jerusalem to Bethlehem how easily might Herod's cruelty have secretly suborned some of his bloudy Courtiers to this inquiry and execution If God had not meant to mock him before he found himself mocked of the Wise men he had rather sent before their journey then after their disappointment But that God in whose hands all hearts are did purposely besot him that he might not find the way to so horrible a mischief There is no Villany so great but it will mask it self under a shew of Piety Herod will also worship the Babe The courtesie of a false Tyrant is death A crafty Hypocrite never means so ill as when he speaketh fairest The Wise men are upon their way full of expectation full of desire I see no man either of the City or Court to accompany them Whether distrust or fear hindred them I inquire not but of so many thousand Jews no one stirs his foot to see that King of theirs which Strangers came so far to visit Yet were not these resolute Sages discouraged with this solitariness and small respect nor drawn to repent of their journey as thinking What do we come so far to honour a King whom no man will acknowledge what mean we to travel so many hundred miles to see that which the inhabitants will not look out to behold but chearfully renew their journey to that place which the ancient light of Prophecy had designed And now behold God encourages their holy forwardness from Heaven by sending them their first Guide as if he had said What need ye care for the neglect of men when ye see Heaven honours the King whom ye seek What joy these Sages conceived when their eyes first beheld the re-appearance of that happy Star they onely can tell that after a long and sad night of Temptation have seen the loving countenance of God shining forth upon their Souls If with obedience and courage we can follow the calling of God in difficult enterprises we shall not want supplies of comfort Let not us be wanting to God we shall be sure he cannot be wanting to us He that led Israel by a Pillar of fire into the Land of Promise leads the Wise men by a Star to the Promised seed All his directions partake of that Light which is in him for God is Light This Star moves both slowly and low as might be fittest for the pace for the purpose of these Pilgrims It is the goodness of God that in those means wherein we cannot reach him he descends unto us Surely when the Wise men saw the Star stand still they looked about to see what Palace there might be near unto that station fit for the birth of a King neither could they think that sorry Shed was it which the Star meant to point out but finding their guide settled over that base roof they go in to see what guest it held They enter and O God! what a King do they find how poor how contemptible wrapt in clouts laid in straw cradled in the manger attended with beasts What a sight was this after all the glorious promises of that Star after the Predictions of Prophets after the magnificence of their expectation All their way afforded nothing so despicable as that Babe whom they came to worship But as those which could not have been wise men unless they had known that the greatest glories have arisen from mean beginnings they fall down and worship that hidden Majesty This Baseness hath bred wonder in them not contempt they well knew the Star could not lie They which saw his Star afar off in the East when he lay swaddled in Bethlehem do also see his Royalty farther off in the despised estate of his infancy a Royalty more then humane They well knew that Stars did not use to attend earthly Kings and if their aim had not been higher what was a Jewish King to Persian Strangers Answerable therefore hereunto was their adoration Neither did they lift up empty hands to him whom they worshipt but presented him with the most precious commodities of their Country Gold Incense Myrrh not as thinking to enrich him with these but by way of homage acknowledging him the Lord of these If these Sages had been Kings and had offered a Princely weight of Gold the Blessed Virgin had not needed in her Purification to have offered two young Pigeons as the sign of her penury As God loves not empty hands so he measures fulness by the affection Let it be Gold or Incense or Myrrh that we offer him it cannot but please him who doth not use to ask how much but how good V. The Purification THere could be no impurity in the Son of God and if the best substance of a pure
mountains He looks for somewhat of every one not of every one alike Since it is he that makes differences of abilities to whom it were as easie to make all rich his mercy will make no difference in the acceptation The truth and heartiness of Obedience is that which he will crown in his meanest servants A Mite from the poor widow is more worth to him then the Talents of the wealthy After all the presents of those Eastern Worshippers who intended rather homage then ditation the Blessed Virgin comes in the form of poverty with her two Doves unto God She could not without some charge lie all this while at Bethlehem she could not without charge travell from Bethlehem to Jerusalem Her offering confesseth her Penury The best are not ever the wealthiest Who can despise any one for want when the Mother of Christ was not rich enough to bring a Lamb for her purification We may be as happy in russet as in tissue While the Blessed Virgin brought her Son into the Temple with that pair of Doves here were more Doves then a pair They for whose sake that Offering was brought were more Doves then the Doves that were brought for that Offering Her Son for whom she brought that Dove to be sacrificed was that Sacrifice which the Dove represented There was nothing in him but perfection of innocence and the oblation of him is that whereby all mothers and sons are fully purified Since in our selves we cannot be innocent happy are we if we can have the spotless Dove sacrificed for us to make us innocent in him The Blessed Virgin had more business in the Temple then her own she came as to purifie her self so to present her Son Every male that first opened the womb was holy unto the Lord. He that was the Son of God by eternal generation before times and by miraculous conception in time was also by common course of nature consecrate unto God It is fit the Holy Mother should present God with his own Her first-born was the first-born of all creatures It was he whose Temple it was that he was presented in to whom all the first-born of all creatures were consecrated by whom they were accepted and now is he brought in his mother's arms to his own House and as Man is presented to himself as God If Moses had never written a Law of God's special propriety in the first-born this Son of God's Essence and Love had taken possession of the Temple his right had been a perfect Law to himself Now his obedience to that Law which himself had given doth no less call him thither then the challenge of his peculiar interest He that was the Lord of all creatures ever since he struck the first-born of the Egyptians requires the first male of all creatures both man and beast to be dedicated to him wherein God caused a miraculous event to second nature which seems to challenge the first and best for the Maker By this rule God should have had his service done onely by the Heirs of Israel But since God for the honour and remuneration of Levi had chosen out that Tribe to minister unto him now the first-born of all Israel must be presented to God as his due but by allowance redeemed to their parents As for Beasts the first male of the clean beasts must be sacrificed of unclean exchanged for a price So much morality is there in this constitution of God that the best of all kinds is fit to be consecrated to the Lord of all Every thing we have is too good for us if we think any thing we have too good for him How glorious did the Temple now seem that the Owner was within the walls of it Now was the hour and guest come in regard whereof the second Temple should surpass the first this was his House built for him dedicated to him there had he dwelt long in his spiritual Presence in his typicall There was nothing either placed or done within those walls whereby he was not resembled and now the Body of those Shadows is come and presents himself where he had been ever represented Jerusalem is now every-where There is no Church no Christian heart which is not a Temple of the living God There is no Temple of God wherein Christ is not presented to his Father Look upon him O God in whom thou art well pleased and in him and for him be well pleased with us Under the Gospel we are all first-born all heirs every Soul is to be holy unto the Lord we are a Royal generation an holy Priesthood Our Baptism as it is our Circumcision and our sacrifice of Purification so is it also our Presentation unto God Nothing can become us but Holiness O God to whom we are devoted serve thy self of us glorifie thy self by us till we shall by thee be glorified with thee VI. Herod and the Infants WEll might these Wise men have suspected Herod's Secrecy If he had meant well what needed that whispering That which they published in the streets he asks in his privy-chamber yet they not misdoubting his intention purpose to fulfill his charge It could not in their apprehension but be much honour to them to make their success known that now both King and people might see it was not Fancy that led them but an assured Revelation That God which brought them thither diverted them and caused their eyes to shut to guide them the best way home These Sages made a happy voiage for now they grew into farther acquaintance with God They are honoured with a second Messenger from Heaven They saw the Star in the way the Angel in their bed The Star guided their journey unto Christ the Angel directed their return They saw the Star by day a Vision by night God spake to their eyes by the Star he speaks to their heart by a Dream No doubt they had left much noise of Christ behind them they that did so publish his Birth by their inquiry at Jerusalem could not be silent when they found him at Bethlehem If they had returned by Herod I fear they had come short home He that meant death to the Babe for the name of a King could mean no other to those that honoured and proclaimed a new King and erected a throne besides his They had done what they came for and now that God whose business they came about takes order at once for his Son's safety and for theirs God who is Perfection it self never begins any business but he makes an end and ends happily When our ways are his there is no danger of miscarriage Well did these Wise men know the difference as of Stars so of Dreams they had learned to distinguish between the natural and divine and once apprehending God in their sleep they follow him waking and return another way They were no Subjects to Herod his command pressed them so much the less or if the being within his dominions had been no less bond
then native subjection yet where God did countermand Herod there could be no question whom to obey They say not We are in a strange Country Herod may meet with us it can be no less then death to mock him in his own territories but chearfully put themselves upon the way and trust God with the success When men command with God we must obey men for God and God in men when against him the best obedience is to deny obedience and to turn our backs upon Herod The Wise men are safely arrived in the East and fill the world full of expectation as themselves are full of wonder Joseph and Mary are returned with the Babe to that Jerusalem where the Wise men had inquired for his Birth The City was doubtless still full of that rumour and little thinks that he whom they talk of was so near them From thence they are at least in their way to Nazareth where they purpose their abode God prevents them by his Angel and sends them for safety into Egypt Joseph was not wont to be so full of Visions It was not long since the Angel appeared unto him to justifie the innocency of the Mother and the Deity of the Son now he appears for the preservation of both and a preservation by flight Could Joseph now chuse but think Is this the King that must save Israel that needs to be saved by me If he be the Son of God how is he subject to the violence of men How is he Almighty that must save himself by flight or how must he flie to save himself out of that land which he comes to save But faithful Joseph having been once tutoured by the Angel and having heard what the Wise men said of the Star what Simeon and Anna said in the Temple labours not so much to reconcile his thoughts as to subject them and as one that knew it safer to suppress doubts then to assoil them can believe what he understands not and can wonder where he cannot comprehend Oh strange condition of the King of all the world He could not be born in a baser estate yet even this he cannot enjoy with safety There was no room for him in Bethlehem there will be no room for him in Judaea He is no sooner come to his own then he must flie from them that he may save them he must avoid them Had it not been easie for thee O Saviour to have acquit thy self from Herod a thousand ways What could an arm of flesh have done against the God of spirits What had it been for thee to have sent Herod five years sooner unto his place what to have commanded fire from heaven on those that should have come to apprehend thee or to have bidden the earth to receive them alive whom she meant to swallow dead We suffer misery because we must thou because thou wouldest The same will that brought thee from Heaven into earth sends thee from Jewry to Egypt As thou wouldst be born mean and miserable so thou wouldst live subject to humane vexations that thou who hast taught us how good it is to bear the yoke even in our youth mightst sanctifie to us early afflictions Or whether O Father since it was the purpose of thy wisedom to manifest thy Son by degrees unto the world was it thy will thus to hide him for a time under our infirmity And what other is our condition we are no sooner born thine then we are persecuted If the Church travail and bring forth a male she is in danger of the Dragons streams What do the Members complain of the same measure which was offered to the Head Both our Births are accompanied with Tears Even of those whose mature age is full of trouble yet the infancy is commonly quiet but here life and toil began together O Blessed Virgin even already did the sword begin to pierce thy Soul Thou which wert forced to bear thy Son in thy womb from Nazareth to Bethlehem must now bear him in thy arms from Jewry into Egypt Yet couldst thou not complain of the way whilest thy Saviour was with thee His presence alone was able to make the Stable a Temple Egypt a Paradise the way more pleasing then rest But whither then O whither dost thou carry that blessed burthen by which thy self and the world are upholden To Egypt the Slaughter-house of God's people the Furnace of Israel's ancient affliction the Sink of the world Out of Egypt have I called my Son saith God That thou calledst thy Son out of Egypt O God is no marvell It is a marvell that thou calledst him into Egypt but that we know all earths are thine and all places and men are like figures upon a table such as thy disposition makes them What a change is here Israel the first-born of God flies out of Egypt into the promised Land of Judaea Christ the first-born of all creatures flies from Judaea into Egypt Egypt is become the Sanctuary Judaea the Inquisition-house of the Son of God He that is every where the same makes all places alike to his He makes the fiery Furnace a Gallery of pleasure the Lions den an house of defence the Whales belly a lodging-chamber Egypt an harbour He flees that was able to preserve himself from danger to teach us how lawfully we may flee from those dangers we cannot avoid otherwise It is a thankless fortitude to offer our throat unto the knife He that came to die for us fled for his own preservation and hath bid us follow him When they persecute you in one City flee into another We have but the use of our lives and we are bound to husband them to the best advantage of God and his Church God hath made us not as Butts to be perpetually shot at but as the marks of Rovers movable as the wind and sun may best serve It was warrant enough for Joseph and Mary that God commands them to flee yet so familiar is God grown with his approved servants that he gives them the reason of his commanded flight For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him What wicked men will do what they would doe is known unto God beforehand He that is so infinitely wise to know the designs of his enemies before they are could as easily prevent them that they might not be but he lets them run on in their own courses that he may fetch glory to himself out of their wickedness Good Joseph having this charge in the night staies not till the morning no sooner had God said Arise then he starts up and sets forward It was not diffidence but obedience that did so hasten his departure The charge was direct the business important He dares not linger for the light but breaks his rest for the journey and taking advantage of the dark departs toward Egypt How knew he this occasion would abide any delay We cannot be too speedy in the execution of Gods commands we may be too late
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
that Christ who gives us these blessings who is given to us in them This seemed too great an honour for the modesty of John to receive If his mother could say when her Blessed Cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the Divine Son of that mother came to call for a favour from him I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater born of woman than thou yet thou couldst not be born of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Saviour He baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water have availed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the womb There can be no flesh without filthiness Neither thy supernatural conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of Baptism Even those that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that unless the Second Adam cleanse them by his Baptism they are hopeless There is no less use of Baptism unto all then there is certainty of the need of Baptism John baptized without Christ within The more holy a man is the more sensible he is of his unholiness No carnal man could have said I have need to be baptized of thee neither can he find what he is the better for a little Font-water The sense of our wretchedness and the valuation of our spiritual helps is the best trial of our Regeneration Our Saviour doth not deny that either John hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John but he will needs thus far both honour John and disparage himself to be baptized of his Messenger He that would take flesh of the Virgin education from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take Baptism from John It is the praise of his mercy that he will stoop so low as to be beholden to his creatures which from him receive their being and power both to take and give Yet not so much respect to John as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of Humiliation Thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness The Counsels and Appointments of God are Righteousness it self There needs no other motive either to the Servant or the Son then the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to lead a faithfull man through all difficulties and inconveniencies neither will it admit of any reply or any demur John yieldeth to this honour which his Saviour puts upon him in giving Baptism to the Authour of it He baptized others to the remission of their sins now he baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized then he comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the use it turns common when that is past Neither is the water sooner poured on his head then the Heavens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptized The Heavens are never shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and received Neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heaven is baptized they open unto him which are opened to all the faithfull by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father joyns with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens in the Father in the Holy Spirit and might expect nothing but divine from the entrance of such a Mediator IX Christ Tempted NO sooner is Christ come out of the water of Baptism then he enters into the fire of Temptation No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head in the form of a Dove then he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Son then Satan says If thou be the Son of God It is not in the power either of the gift or seals of Grace to deliver us from the assaults of Satan They may have the force to repell evil suggestions they have none to prevent them Yea the more we are ingaged unto God by our publick vows and his pledges of favour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that Evil one to encounter us We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God then he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turn them against us The voice from Heaven acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God this Divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swells with inward poison and hasts to assail him whom God hath honoured from Heaven O God how should I look to escape the suggestions of that Wicked one when the Son of thy love cannot be free when even Grace it self draws on enmity That enmity that spared not to strike at the head will it forbear the weakest and remotest limb Arm thou me therefore with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my soul also Thou art my Son and let Satan doe his worst All the time of our Saviour's obscurity I do not find him set upon Now that he looks forth to the publick execution of his Divine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our privacy perhaps may sit down in peace but never man did endeavour a common good without opposition It is a sign that both the Work is holy and the Agent faithfull when we meet with strong affronts We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with resistence If we were not in a way to do good we should find no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his own and that whilst they go about his own service He desires nothing more then to make us smooth paths to sin but when we would turn our feet to holiness he blocks up the way with Temptations Who can wonder enough at the sawciness of that bold Spirit that dares to set upon the Son of the everliving God Who can wonder enough at thy meekness and patience O Saviour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not malice and presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our humane nature lays thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to Temptations Thou wouldest not have put on Flesh if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of innocence could have been any defence against evil motions the First Adam had not been tempted much
Christ carried up so high but for prospect If the Kingdoms of the earth and their glory were onely to be presented to his Imagination the Valley would have served if to the outward Sense no Hill could suffice Circular bodies though small cannot be seen at once This show was made to both divers Kingdoms lying round about Judaea were represented to the Eye the glory of them to the Imagination Satan meant the Eye could tempt the Fancy no less then the Fancy could tempt the Will How many thousand souls have died of the wound of the Eye If we do not let in sin at the window of the Eye or the door of the Ear it cannot enter into our Hearts If there be any pomp majesty pleasure bravery in the world where should it be but in the Courts of Princes whom God hath made his Images his Deputies on earth There is soft raiment sumptuous feasts rich jewels honourable attendence glorious triumphs royal state These Satan lays out to the fairest show But oh the craft of that old Serpent Many a Care attends Greatness No Crown is without Thorns High seats are never but uneasie All those infinite discontentments which are the shadow of earthly Sovereignty he hides out of the way nothing may be seen but what may both please and allure Satan is still and ever like himself If Temptations might be but turn'd about and shewn on both sides the Kingdom of darkness would not be so populous Now whensoever the Tempter sets upon any poor Soul all sting of conscience wrath judgment torment is concealed as if they were not Nothing may appear to the eye but pleasure profit and a seeming happiness in the enjoying our desires Those other wofull objects are reserved for the farewell of sin that our misery may be seen and felt at once When we are once sure Satan is a Tyrant till then he is a Parasite There can be no safety if we do not view as well the back as the face of Temptations But oh presumption and impudence that Hell it self may be ashamed of The Devil dares say to Christ All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me That beggarly Spirit that hath not an inch of Earth can offer the whole World to the Maker to the Owner of it The Slave of God would be adored of his Creatour How can we hope he should be sparing of false boasts and of unreasonable promises unto us when he dares offer Kingdoms to him by whom Kings reign Temptations on the right hand are most dangerous How many that have been hardned with Fear have melted with Honour There is no doubt of that Soul that will not bite at the golden hook False Liars and vain-glorious Boasters see the top of their pedigree if I may not rather say that Satan doth borrow the use of their tongues for a time Whereas faithfull is he that hath promised who will also doe it Fidelity and Truth is the issue of Heaven If Idolatry were not a dear sin to Satan he would not be so importunate to compass it It is miserable to see how he draws the world insensibly into this sin which they profess to detest Those that would rather hazzard the furnace then worship Gold in a Statue yet do adore it in the stamp and find no fault with themselves If our hearts be drawn to stoop unto an over-high respect of any creature we are Idolaters O God it is no marvel if thy jealousie be kindled at the admission of any of thine own works into a competition of honour with their Creatour Never did our Saviour say Avoid Satan till now It is a just indignation that is conceived at the motion of a rivality with God Neither yet did Christ exercise his Divine power in this command but by the necessary force of Scripture drives away that impure Tempter It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve The rest of our Saviour's answers were more full and direct then that they could admit of a reply but this was so flat and absolute that it utterly daunted the courage of Satan and put him to a shamefull flight and made him for the time weary of his trade The way to be rid of the troublesome solicitations of that Wicked one is continued resistence He that forcibly drove the Tempter from himself takes him off from us and will not abide his assaults perpetual It is our exercise and trial that he intends not our confusion X. Simon called AS the Sun in his first rising draws all eyes to it so did this Sun of righteousness when he first shone forth into the world His miraculous Cures drew Patients his Divine Doctrine drew Auditours both together drew the admiring multitude by troops after him And why do we not still follow thee O Saviour through desarts and mountains over land and seas that we may be both healed and taught It was thy word that when thou wert lift up thou wouldst draw all men unto thee Behold thou art lift up long since both to the Tree of shame and to the Throne of heavenly Glory Draw us and we shall run after thee Thy Word is still the same though proclaimed by men thy Virtue is still the same though exercised upon the spirits of men Oh give us to hunger after both that by both our souls may be satisfied I see the people not onely following Christ but pressing upon him Even very Unmannerliness finds here both excuse and acceptation They did not keep their distances in an awe to the Majesty of the Speaker whilst they were ravished with the power of the Speech yet did not our Saviour check their unreverent thronging but rather incourages their forwardness We cannot offend thee O God with the importunity of our desires It likes thee well that the Kingdom of heaven should suffer violence Our slackness doth ever displease thee never our vehemency The throng of Auditours forced Christ to leave the shore and to make Peter's Ship his Pulpit Never were there such nets cast out of that fisher-boat before Whilst he was upon the land he healed the sick bodies by his touch now that he was upon the Sea he cured the sick souls by his doctrine and is purposely severed from the multitude that he may unite them to him He that made both Sea and Land causeth both of them to conspire to the opportunities of doing good Simon was busie washing his nets Even those nets that caught nothing must be washed no less then if they had sped well The night's toil doth not excuse his day's work Little did Simon think of leaving those nets which he so carefully washed and now Christ interrupts him with the favour and blessing of his gracious presence Labour in our calling how homely soever makes us capable of Divine benediction The honest Fisher-man when he saw the people flock after Christ and heard him speak with such power could not
others mouths They that knew not the original of that wine yet praised the taste Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse but thou hast kept the good wine untill now The same bounty that expressed it self in the quantity of the wine shews it self no less in the excellence Nothing can fall from that Divine hand not exquisite That liberality hated to provide Crab-wine for his guests It was fit that the miraculous effects of Christ which came from his immediate hand should be more perfect then the natural O Blessed Saviour how delicate is that new Wine which we shall one day drink with thee in thy Father's Kingdom Thou shalt turn this Water of our earthly affliction into that Wine of gladness wherewith our souls shall be satiate for ever Make haste O my Beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountain of spices XII The good Centurion EVen the bloudy trade of War yielded worthy Clients to Christ This Roman Captain had learned to believe in that Jesus whom many Jews despised No Nation no Trade can shut out a good heart from God If he were a forreiner for birth yet he was a domestick in heart He could not change his bloud he could over-rule his affections He loved that Nation which was chosen of God and if he were not of the Synagogue yet he built a Synagogue where he might not be a party he would be a Benefactour Next to being good is a favouring of Goodness We could not love Religion if we utterly wanted it How many true Jews were not so zealous Either will or ability lacked in them whom duty more obliged Good affections do many times more then supply nature Neither doth God regard whence but what we are I do not see this Centurion come to Christ as the Israelitish Captain came to Elias in Carmel but with his cap in his hand with much suit much submission by others by himself He sends first the Elders of the Jews whom he might hope their Nation and Place might make gracious then left the imployment of others might argue neglect he seconds them in person Cold and fruitless are the motions of friends where we do wilfully shut up our own lips Importunity cannot but speed well in both Could we but speak for our selves as this Captain did for his servant what could we possibly want What marvell is it if God be not forward to give where we care not to ask or ask as if we cared not to receive Shall we yet call this a suit or a complaint I hear no one word of intreaty The less is said the more is concealed It is enough to lay open his want He knew well that he had to deal with so wise and mercifull a Physician as that the opening of the maladie was a craving of cure If our spirituall miseries be but confessed they cannot fail of redress Great variety of Suitours resorted to Christ One comes to him for a Son another comes for a Daughter a third for Himself I see none come for his Servant but this one Centurion Neither was he a better man then a Master His Servant is sick he doth not drive him out of doors but lays him at home neither doth he stand gazing by his bed-side but seeks forth He seeks forth not to Witches or Charmers but to Christ He seeks to Christ not with a fashionable relation but with a vehement aggravation of the disease Had the Master been sick the faithfullest Servant could have done no more He is unworthy to be well served that will not sometimes wait upon his followers Conceits of inferiority may not breed in us a neglect of charitable offices So must we look down upon our Servants here on earth as that we must still look up to our Master which is in Heaven But why didst thou not O Centurion rather bring thy Servant to Christ for cure then sue for him absent There was a Paralytick whom Faith and Charity brought to our Saviour and let down through the uncovered roof in his Bed why was not thine so carried so presented Was it out of the strength of thy Faith which assured thee thou neededst not shew thy Servant to him who saw all things One and the same grace may yield contrary effects They because they believed brought the Patient to Christ thou broughtest not thine to him because thou believedst Their act argued no less desire thine more confidence Thy labour was less because thy faith was more Oh that I could come thus to my Saviour and make such moan to him for my self Lord my Soul is sick of Unbelief sick of Self-love sick of inordinate Desires I should not need to say more Thy mercy O Saviour would not then stay by for my suit but would prevent me as here with a gracious ingagement I will come and heal thee I do not hear the Centurion say Either come or heal him The one he meant though he said it not the other he neither said nor meant Christ over-gives both his words and intentions It is the manner of that Divine munificence where he meets with a faithfull Suitour to give more then is requested to give when he is not requested The very insinuations of our necessities are no less violent then successfull We think the measure of humane bounty runs over when we obtain but what we ask with importunity that infinite Goodness keeps within bounds when it overflows the desires of our hearts As he said so he did The word of Christ either is his act or concurs with it He did not stand still when he said I will come but he went as he spake When the Ruler intreated him for his Son Come down ere he die our Saviour stirr'd not a foot The Centurion did but complain of the sickness of his Servant and Christ unasked says I will come and heal him That he might be far from so much as seeming to honour wealth and despise meanness he that came in the shape of a Servant would goe down to the sick Servant's Pallet would not goe to the Bed of the rich Ruler's Son It is the basest motive of respect that ariseth meerly from outward Greatness Either more Grace or more need may justly challenge our favourable regards no less then private Obligations Even so O Saviour that which thou offeredst to doe for the Centurion's Servant hast thou done for us We were sick unto death so far had the dead palsie of Sin overtaken us that there was no life of Grace left in us when thou wert not content to sit still in Heaven and say I will cure them but addedst also I will come and cure them Thy self camest down accordingly to this miserable World and hast personally healed us so as now we shall not die but live and declare thy works O Lord. And oh that we could enough praise that love and mercy which
hath so graciously abated thee and could be but so low dejected before thee as thou hast stooped low unto us that we could be but as lowly subjects of thy Goodness as we are unworthy O admirable return of humility Christ will goe down to visit the sick Servant The Master of that Servant says Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof The Jewish Elders that went before to mediate for him could say He is worthy that thou shouldst doe this for him but the Centurion when he comes to speak for himself I am not worthy They said he was worthy of Christ's Miracle he says he is unworthy of Christ's Presence There is great difference betwixt others valuations and our own Sometimes the world under-rates him that finds reason to set an high price upon himself Sometimes again it over-values a man that knows just cause of his own humiliation If others mistake us this can be no warrant for our errour We cannot be wise unless we receive the knowledge of our selves by direct beams not by reflexion unless we have learned to contemn unjust applauses and scorning the flattery of the World to frown upon our own vileness Lord I am not worthy Many a one if he had been in the Centurion's coat would have thought well of it A Captain a man of good ability and command a founder of a Synagogue a Patron of Religion yet he overlooks all these and when he casts his eye upon the Divine worth of Christ and his own weakness he says I am not worthy Alas Lord I am a Gentile an Alien a man of bloud thou art Holy thou art Omnipotent True Humility will teach us to find out the best of another and the worst piece of our selves Pride contrarily shews us nothing but matter of admiration in our selves in others of contempt Whilst he confest himself unworthy of any favour he approved himself worthy of all Had not Christ been before in his heart he could not have thought himself unworthy to entertain that Guest within his house Under the low roof of an humble breast doth God ever delight to dwell The state of his Palace may not be measured by the height but by the depth Brags and bold faces do ofttimes carry it away with men nothing prevails with God but our voluntary dejections It is fit the foundation should be laid deep where the building is high The Centurion's Humility was not more low then his Faith was lofty That reaches up into Heaven and in the face of humane weakness descries Omnipotence Onely say the word and my Servant shall be whole Had the Centurion's roof been Heaven it self it could not have been worthy to be come under of him whose Word was Almighty and who was the Almighty Word of his Father Such is Christ confessed by him that says Onely say the word None but a Divine power is unlimited neither hath Faith any other bounds then God himself There needs no footing to remove Mountains or Devils but a word Do but say the word O Saviour my Sin shall be remitted my Soul shall be healed my Body shall be raised from dust both Soul and Body shall be glorious Whereupon then was the steddy confidence of the good Centurion He saw how powerfull his own word was with those that were under his command though himself were under the command of another the force whereof extended even to absent performances well therefore might he argue that a free and unbounded power might give infallible commands and that the most obstinate Disease must therefore needs yield to the beck of the God of Nature Weakness may shew us what is in strength By one drop of water we may see what is in the main Ocean I marvell not if the Centurion were kind to his Servants for they were dutifull to him he can but say Doe this and it is done These mutuall respects draw on each other Chearfull and diligent service in the one calls for a due and favourable care in the other They that neglect to please cannot complain to be neglected Oh that I could be but such a Servant to mine heavenly Master Alas every of his Commands says Doe this and I doe it not every of his Inhibitions says Doe it not and I doe it He says Goe from the World I run to it he says Come to me I run from him Woe is me this is not service but enmity How can I look for favour whilst I return rebellion It is a gracious Master whom we serve there can be no Duty of ours that he sees not that he acknowledges not that he crowns not We could not but be happy if we could be officious What can be more marvellous then to see Christ marvell All marvelling supposes an ignorance going before and a knowledge following some accident unexpected Now who wrought this Faith in the Centurion but he that wondred at it He knew well what he wrought because he wrought what he would yet he wondred at what he both wrought and knew to teach us much more to admire that which he at once knows and holds admirable He wrought this Faith as God he wondred at it as Man God wrought and Man admired he that was both did both to teach us where to bestow our wonder I never find Christ wondring at gold or silver at the costly and curious works of humane skill or industry yea when the Disciples wondred at the magnificence of the Temple he rebuked them rather I find him not wondring at the frame of Heaven and Earth nor at the orderly disposition of all creatures and events the familiarity of these things intercepts the admiration But when he sees the grace or acts of Faith he so approves them that he is ravished with wonder He that rejoyced in the view of his Creation to see that of nothing he had made all things good rejoyces no less in the reformation of his Creature to see that he had made good of evill Behold thou art fair my Love behold thou art fair and there is no spot in thee My Sister my Spouse thou hast wounded my heart thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes Our Wealth Beauty Wit Learning Honour may make us accepted of men but it is our Faith onely that shall make God in love with us And why are we of any other save God's diet to be more affected with the least measure of Grace in any man then with all the outward glories of the World There are Great men whom we justly pity we can admire none but the Gracious Neither was that plant more worthy of wonder in it self then that it grew in such a soil with so little help of rain and Sun The weakness of means addes to the praise and acceptation of our proficiency To doe good upon a little is the commendation of thrift it is small thank to be full-handed in a large estate As contrarily the strength of means doubles the revenge
of our neglect It is not more the shame of Israel then the glory of the Centurion that our Saviour says I have not found so great faith in Israel Had Israel yielded any equall faith it could not have been unespied of these All-seeing eyes yet though their Helps were so much greater their Faith was less and God never gives more then he requires Where we have laid our Tillage and Compost and Seed who would not look for a Crop but if the uncultured Fallow yield more how justly is that unanswerable ground near to a curse Our Saviour did not mutter this censorious testimony to himself not whisper it to his Disciples but he turned him about to the people and spake it in their ears that he might at once work their shame and emulation In all other things except spirituall our self-love makes us impatient of equalls much less can we endure to be out-stripped by those who are our professed inferiours It is well if any thing can kindle in us holy ambitions Dull and base are the spirits of that man that can abide to see another overtake him in the way and out-run him to Heaven He that both wrought this Faith and wondred at it doth now reward it Go thy ways and as thou hast believed so be it unto thee Never was any Faith unseen of Christ never was any seen without allowance never was any allowed without remuneration The measure of our receits in the matter of favour is the proportion of our belief The infinite Mercy of God which is ever like it self follows but one rule in his gift to us the Faith that he gives us Give us O God to believe and be it to us as thou wilt it shall be to us above that we will The Centurion sues for his Servant and Christ says So be it unto thee The Servant's health is the benefit of the Master and the Master's Faith is the health of the Servant And if the Prayers of an earthly Master prevailed so much with the Son of God for the recovery of a Servant how shall the intercession of the Son of God prevail with his Father in Heaven for us that are his impotent Children and Servants upon Earth What can we want O Saviour whilst thou suest for us He that hath given thee for us can deny thee nothing for us can deny us nothing for thee In thee we are happy and shall be glorious To thee O thou mighty Redeemer of Israel with thine Eternal Father together with thy Blessed Spirit one God infinite and incomprehensible be given all Praise Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen XIII The Widow's Son raised THE favours of our beneficent Saviour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurion's Servant from his Bed then he raises the Widow's Son from his Bier The fruitfull clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sun were fixed in one Orb yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingross the Messengers of the Gospel whose errand is universal This immortal Seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood under the hill of Hermon near unto Tabor but now it is watered with better dews from above the Doctrine and Miracles of a Saviour Not for state but for the more evidence of the work is our Saviour attended with a large train so entering into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their Faith by his Power and to take it His providence hath so contrived his journey that he meets with the sad pomp of a Funeral A wofull Widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely Son to the grave There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flower in the strength of his age swallowed up by death Our decrepit age both expects death and solicits it but vigorous youth looks strangely upon that grim Serjeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather up with contentment we chide to have the unripe unseasonably beaten down with cudgels But more a young man the onely Son the onely Child of his mother No condition can make it other then grievous for a well-natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of loss Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the surviving may supply the comforts of the dead But when all our hopes and joys must either live or die in one the loss of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable he can but say O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloath and wallow thy self in ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son Such was the loss such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor tears can suffice to discover it Yet more had she been aided by the counsel and supportation of a loving Yoke-fellow this burthen might have seemed less intolerable A good Husband may make amends for the loss of a Son Had the Root been left to her intire she might better have spared the Branch now both are cut up all the stay of her life is gone and she seems abandoned to a perfect misery And now when she gave her self up for a forlorn mourner past all capacity of redress the God of comfort meets her pities her relieves her Here was no Solicitour but his own Compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a Servant the Ruler for a Son Jairus for a Daughter the neighbours for the Paralytick here he seeks the Patient and offers the Cure unrequested Whilst we have to doe with the Father of mercies our Afflictions are the most powerfull suitours No tears no prayers can move him so much as his own commiseration O God none of our secret sorrows can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of help then art thou nearest to us for deliverance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The Heart had compassion the Mouth said Weep not the Feet went to the Bier the Hand touched the Coffin the power of the Deity raised the dead What the Heart felt was secret to it self the Tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weep not Alas what are words to so strong and just passions To bid her not to weep that had lost her onely Son was to perswade her to be miserable and not feel it to feel and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealment doth not remedy but aggravate sorrow That with the counsel of not weeping therefore she might see cause of
Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design other then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is the King of Gods the Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the Earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peers People If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for confusion that call for parity What should the Church doe with such a form as is not exemplified in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Commonwealth of Cheaters and Cutpurses one doeth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actour falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a farther spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitour in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhor to be beholden to the powers of hell for aid for advice Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that men go to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemy of their souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not it is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then are the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a Slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jews therefore they accuse him for a Conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for an Arch-exorcist for the worst kind of Magician Some professours of this black Art though their work be devillish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottom finds no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadfull sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinfull Servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the Searcher of hearts finds it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envy never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Christ For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coals yea those very coals of hell from which thou wert enkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the Miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a farther proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those ancient Miracles of the times of our forefathers Joshua caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonisht the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kind of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in Infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews over-looked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitors in the desart That there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those furnaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quails they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but mercy nothing from them but temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the Messiah if curing the blind lame diseased deaf dumb ejecting Devils over-ruling the elements raising the dead could have been sufficient yet still they must have a sign from Heaven and shut up in
be our strong helper that hath not given us over to be a prey unto their teeth Or if some scope have been given to that envious one to afflict us hath it been with favourable limitations it is thine onely mercy O God that hath chained and muzzled up this band-dog so as that he may scratch us with his paws but cannot pierce us with his fangs Far far is this from our deserts who had too well merited a just abdication from thy favour and protection and an interminable seisure by Satan both in soul and body Neither do I here see more matter of thanks to our God for our immunity from the external injuries of Satan then occasion of serious inquiry into his power over us for the spiritual I see some that think themselves safe from this ghostly tyranny because they sometimes find themselves in good moods free from the suggestions of gross sins much more from the commission Vain men that feed themselves with so false and frivolous comforts will they not see Satan through the just permission of God the same to the Soul in mental possessions that he is to the Body in corporal The worst Demoniack hath his lightsome respites not ever tortured not ever furious betwixt whiles he might look soberly talk sensibly move regularly It is a wofull comfort that we sin not always There is no Master so barbarous as to require of his Slave a perpetual unintermitted toil yet though he sometimes eat sleep rest he is a vassal still If that Wicked one have drawn us to a customary perpetration of evil and have wrought us to a frequent iteration of the same sin this is gage enough for our servitude matter enough for his tyranny and insultation He that would be our Tormentour always cares onely to be sometimes our Tempter The possessed is bound as with the invisible fetters of Satan so with the material chains of the inhabitants What can bodily force prevail against a spirit Yet they endeavour this restraint of the man whether out of charity or justice charity that he might not hurt himself justice that he might not hurt others None do so much befriend the Demoniack as those that bind him Neither may the spiritually possessed be otherwise handled for though this act of the enemy be plausible and to appearance pleasant yet there is more danger in this dear and smiling tyranny Two sorts of chains are fit for outrageous sinners good Laws unpartial Executions that they may not hurt that they may not be hurt to eternal death These iron chains are no sooner fast then broken There was more then an humane power in this disruption It is not hard to conceive the utmost of nature in this kind of actions Sampson doth not break the cords and ropes like a thread of tow but God by Sampson The man doth not break these chains but the Spirit How strong is the arm of these evil angels how far transcending the ordinary course of nature They are not called Powers for nothing What flesh and bloud could but tremble at the palpable inequality of this match if herein the mercifull protection of our God did not the rather magnifie it self that so much strength met with so much malice hath not prevailed against us In spite of both we are in safe hands He that so easily brake the iron fetters can never break the adamantine chain of our Faith In vain do the chafing billows of Hell beat upon that Rock whereon we are built And though these brittle chains of earthly metall be easily broken by him yet the sure tempered chain of God's eternal Decree he can never break That Almighty Arbiter of Heaven and Earth and Hell hath chained him up in the bottomless pit and hath so restrained his malice that but for our good we cannot be tempted we cannot be foiled but for a glorious victory Alas it is no otherwise with the spiritually possessed The chains of restraint are commonly broken by the fury of wickedness What are the respects of civility fear of God fear of men wholsome laws carefull executions to the desperately licentious but as cobwebs to an hornet Let these wild Demoniacks know that God hath provided chains for them that will hold even everlasting chains under darkness These are such as must hold the Devils themselves their Masters unto the judgment of the great Day how much more those impotent Vassals Oh that men would suffer themselves to be bound to their good behaviour by the sweet and easie recognizances of their duty to their God and the care of their own souls that so they might rather be bound up in the bundle of life It was not for rest that these chains were torn off but for more motion This prisoner runs away from his friends he cannot run away from his Jaolour He is now carried into the Wilderness not by meer external force but by internal impulsion carried by the same power that unbound him for the opportunity of his tyranny for the horrour of the place for the affamishment of his body for the avoidance of all means of resistence Solitary Desarts are the delights of Satan It is an unwise zeal that moves us to doe that to our selves in an opinion of merit and holiness which the Devil wishes to doe to us for a punishment and conveniency of temptation The evil Spirit is for solitariness God is for society He dwells in the assembly of his Saints yea there he hath a delight to dwell Why should not we account it our happiness that we may have leave to dwell where the Authour of all happiness loves to dwell There cannot be any misery incident unto us whereof our gracious Redeemer is not both conscious and sensible Without any intreaty therefore of the miserable Demoniack or suit of any friend the God of spirits takes pity of his distress and from no motion but his own commands the evil Spirit to come out of the man O admirable precedent of mercy preventing our requests exceeding our thoughts forcing favours upon our impotence doing that for us which we should and yet cannot desire If men upon our instant solicitations would give us their best aid it were a just praise of their bounty but it well became thee O God of mercy to go without force to give without suit And do we think thy goodness is impaired by thy glory If thou wert thus commiserative upon earth art thou less in Heaven How dost thou now take notice of all our complaints of all our infirmities how doth thine infinite pity take order to redress them What evil can befall us which thou knowest not feelest not relievest not How safe are we that have such a Guardian such a Mediatour in Heaven Not long before had our Saviour commanded the winds and waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues superiority He onely is
infinitely stronger then the strong one in possession Else where powers are matcht though with some inequality they tug for the victory and without a resistence yield nothing There are no fewer sorts of dealing with Satan then with men Some have dealt with him by suit as the old Satanian Hereticks and the present Indian Savages sacrificing to him that he hurt not others by covenant conditioning their service upon his assistence as Witches and Magicians others by insinuation of implicit compact as Charmers and Figure-casters others by adjuration as the sons of Scaeva and modern Exorcists unwarrantably charging him by an higher name then their own None ever offered to deal with Satan by a direct and primary command but the God of Spirits The great Archangel when the strife was about the body of Moses commanded not but imprecated rather The Lord rebuke thee Satan It is onely the God that made this Spirit an Angel of light that can command him now that he hath made himself the Prince of darkness If any created power dare to usurp a word of command he laughs at their presumption and knows them his Vassals whom he dissembles to fear as his Lords It is thou onely O Saviour at whose beck those stubborn Principalities of hell yield and tremble No wicked man can be so much a slave to Satan as Satan is to thee the interposition of thy grace may defeat that dominion of Satan thy rule is absolute and capable of no lett What need we to fear whilst we are under so omnipotent a Commander The waves of the deep rage horribly yet the Lord is stronger then they Let those Principalities and Powers doe their worst Those mighty adversaries are under the command of him who loved us so well as to bleed for us What can we now doubt of his power or his will How can we profess him a God and doubt of his power How can we profess him a Saviour and doubt of his will He both can and will command those infernall powers We are no less safe then they are malicious The Devill saw Jesus by the eyes of the Demoniack For the same saw that spake but it was the ill Spirit that said I beseech thee torment me not It was sore against his will that he saw so dreadfull an object The over-ruling power of Christ dragged the foul Spirit into his presence Guiltiness would fain keep out of sight The Lims of so wofull an Head shall once call on the Hills and Rocks to hide them from the face of the Lamb such Lion-like terrour is in that mild face when it looks upon wickedness Neither shall it be one day the least part of the torment of the damned to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford He from whom they fled in his offers of grace shall be so much more terrible as he was and is more gracious I marvel not therefore that the Devill when he saw Jesus cried out I could marvell that he fell down that he worshipped him That which the proud Spirit would have had Christ to have done to him in his great Duell the same he now doeth unto Christ fearfully servilely forcedly Who shall henceforth brag of the externall homage he performs to the Son of God when he sees Satan himself fall down and worship What comfort can there be in that which is common to us with Devils who as they believe and tremble so they tremble and worship The outward bowing is the body of the action the disposition of the Soul is the soul of it therein lies the difference from the counterfeit stoopings of wicked men and spirits The religious heart serves the Lord in fear and rejoyces in him with trembling What it doeth is in way of service in service to his Lord whose sovereignty is his comfort and protection in the fear of a son not of a slave in fear tempered with joy in a joy but allayed with trembling Whereas the prostration of wicked men and Devils is onely an act of form or of force as to their Judge as to their Tormentour not as to their Lord in meer servility not in reverence in an uncomfortable dulness without all delight in a perfect horrour without capacity of joy These worship without thanks because they fall down without the true affections of worship Whoso marvels to see the Devill upon his knees would much more marvel to hear what came from his mouth Jesus the Son of the Most high God A confession which if we should hear without the name of the Authour we should ask from what Saint it came Behold the same name given to Christ by the Devil which was formerly given him by the Angel Thou shalt call his name JESUS That awfull Name whereat every knee shall bow in heaven in earth and under the earth is called upon by this prostrate Devil And lest that should not import enough since others have been honoured by this name in Type he adds for full distinction the Son of the Most high God The good Syrophoenician and blind Bartimaeus could say the Son of David it was well to acknowledge the true descent of his pedigree according to the flesh But this infernal Spirit looks aloft and fetcheth his line out of the highest Heavens the Son of the Most high God The famous confession of the prime Apostle which honoured him with a new name to immortality was no other then Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God and what other do I hear from the lips of a Fiend No more Divine words could fall from the highest Saint Nothing hinders but that the veriest miscreant on earth yea the foulest Devil in Hell may speak holily It is no passing of judgment upon loose sentences So Peter should have been cast for a Satan in denying forswearing cursing and the Devil should have been set up for a Saint in confessing Jesus the Son of the Most high God Fond hypocrite that pleasest thy self in talking well hear this Devil and when thou canst speak better then he look to fare better but in the mean time know that a smooth tongue and a foul heart carrie away double judgments Let curious heads dispute whether the Devil knew Christ to be God In this I dare believe himself though in nothing else He knew what he believed what he believed that he confessed Jesus the Son of the Most high God To the confusion of those Semi-Christians that have either held doubtfully or ignorantly mis-known or blasphemously denied what the very Devils have professed How little can a bare speculation avail us in these cases of Divinity So far this Devil hath attained to no ease no comfort Knowledge alone doth but puffe up it is our Love that edifies If there be not a sense of our sure interest in this Jesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no whit the safer no whit the better onely we are so much the wiser to understand who shall condemn us
attribute this to their modesty as if they held themselves unworthy of so Divine a guest Why then did they fall upon this suit in a time of their loss Why did they not tax themselves and intimate a secret desire of that which they durst not beg It is too much rigour to attribute it to the love of their Hogs and an anger at their loss then they had not intreated but expelled him It was their fear that moved this harsh suit a servile fear of danger to their persons to their goods lest he that could so absolutely command the Devils should have set these tormentours upon them lest their other Demoniacks should be dispossessed with like loss I cannot blame these Gadarens that they feared this power was worthy of trembling at Their fear was unjust They should have argued This man hath power over men beasts devils it is good having him to our friend his presence is our safety and protection Now they contrarily mis-inferre Thus powerfull is he it is good he were farther off What miserable and pernicious misconstructions do men make of God of Divine attributes and actions God is omnipotent able to take infinite vengeance of sin Oh that he were not He is provident I may be careless He is mercifull I may sin He is holy let him depart from me for I am a sinfull man How witty sophisters are natural men to deceive their own souls to rob themselves of a God O Saviour how worthy are they to want thee that wish to be rid of thee Thou hast just cause to be weary of us even whilst we sue to hold thee but when once our wretched unthankfulness grows weary of thee who can pity us to be punished with thy departure Who can say it is other then righteous that thou shouldst retort one day upon us Depart from me ye wicked XVIII The faithfull Canaanite IT was our Saviour's trade to doe good therefore he came down from heaven to earth therefore he changed one station of earth for another Nothing more commends goodness then generality and diffusion whereas reservedness and close-handed restraint blemish the glory of it The Sun stands not still in one point of heaven but walks his daily round that all the inferiour world may share of his influences both in heat and light Thy bounty O Saviour did not affect the praise of fixedness but motion One while I find thee at Jerusalem then at Capernaum soon after in the utmost verge of Galilee never but doing good But as the Sun though he daily compass the world yet never walks from under his line never goes beyond the turning points of the longest and shortest day so neither didst thou O Saviour pass the bounds of thine own peculiar people thou wouldst move but not wildly not out of thine own sphear Wherein thy glorified estate exceeds thine humbled as far as Heaven is above Earth Now thou art lift up thou drawest all men unto thee there are now no lists no limits of thy gracious visitations but as the whole Earth is equidistant from Heaven so all the nations of the world lie equally open to thy bounty Neither yet didst thou want outward occasions of thy removall Perhaps the very importunity of the Scribes and Pharisees in obtruding their Traditions drave thee thence perhaps their unjust offence at thy Doctrine There is no readier way to lose Christ then to clog him with humane Ordinances then to spurn at his heavenly Instructions He doth not always subduce his Spirit with his visible presence but his very outward withdrawing is worthy of our sighs worthy of our tears Many a one may say Lord if thou hadst been here my Soul had not died Thou art now with us O Saviour thou art with us in a free and plentifull fashion how long thou knowest we know our deservings and fear O teach us how happy we are in such a Guest and give us grace to keep thee Hadst thou walked within the Phoenician borders we could have told how to have made glad constructions of thy mercy in turning to the Gentiles thou that couldst touch the Lepers without uncleanness couldst not be defiled with aliens but we know the partition-wall was not yet broken down and thou that didst charge thy Disciples not to walk into the way of the Gentiles wouldst not transgress thine own rule Once we are sure thou camest to the utmost point of the bounds of Galilee as not ever confined to the heart of Jewry thou wouldst sometimes bless the outer skirts with thy presence No angle is too obscure for the Gospel The land of Zabulon and the land of Napthali by the way of the Sea beyond Jordan Galilee of the Gentiles the people which sate in darkness saw great light The Sun is not scornfull but looks with the same face upon every plot of earth not onely the stately palaces and pleasant gardens are visited by his beams but mean cottages but neglected bogs and moors God's Word is like himself no accepter of persons the wild Kern the rude Scythian the savage Indian are alike to it The mercy of God will be sure to find out those that belong to his election in the most secret corners of the world like as his judgments will fetch his enemies from under the hills and rocks The good Shepherd walks the wilderness to seek one sheep strayed from many If there be but one Syrophoenician Soul to be gained to the Church Christ goes to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon to fetch her Why are we weary to doe good when our Saviour underwent this perpetual toil in healing Bodies and winning Souls There is no life happy but that which is spent in a continual drudging for edification It is long since we heard of the name or nation of Canaanites all the country was once so styled that people was now forgotten yet because this woman was of the bloud of those Phoenicians which were anciently ejected out of Canaan that title is revived to her God keeps account of pedigrees after our oblivion that he may magnifie his mercies by continuing them to thousands of the generations of the just and by renewing favours upon the unjust No nation carried such brands and scars of a Curse as Canaan To the shame of those careless Jews even a faithfull Canaanite is a suppliant to Christ whilst they neglect so great salvation She doth not speak but cry need and desire have raised her voice to an importunate clamour The God of mercy is light of hearing yet he loves a loud and vehement solicitation not to make himself inclinable to grant but to make us capable to receive blessings They are words and not prayers which fall from careless lips If we felt our want or wanted not desire we could speak to God in no tune but cries If we would prevail with God we must wrastle and if we would wrastle happily with God we must wrastle first with our own dulness Nothing but cries can
an happy thing to hear the report of them back from Heaven but if we always do not so it is not for us to be dejected and to accuse either our infidelity or thy neglect since we find here a faithfull suitour met with a gracious Saviour and yet he answered her not a word If we be poor in spirit God is rich in mercy he cannot send us away empty yet he will not always let us feel his condescent crossing us in our will that he may advance our benefit It was no small fruit of Christ's silence that the Disciples were hereupon moved to pray for her Not for a meer dismission It had been no favour to have required this but a punishment for if to be held in suspense be miserable to be sent away with a repulse is more But for a mercifull grant They saw much passion in the woman much cause of passion they saw great discouragement on Christ's part great constancy on hers Upon all these they feel her misery and become suitours for her unrequested It is our duty in case of necessity to intercede for each other and by how much more familiar we are with Christ so much more to improve our interest for the relief of the distressed We are bidden to say Our Father not mine Yea being members of one body we pray for our selves in others If the Foot be prickt the Back bends the Head bows down the Eyes look the Hands stir the Tongue calls for aid the whole man is in pain and labours for redress He cannot pray or be heard for himself that is no man's friend but his own No Prayer without Faith no Faith without Charity no Charity without mutual Intercession That which urged them to speak for her is urged to Christ by them for her obtaining She cries after us Prayer is as an Arrow if it be drawn up but a little it goes not far but if it be pull'd up to the head it flies strongly and pierces deep If it be but dribbled forth of careless lips it falls down at our foot the strength of our ejaculation sends it up into Heaven and fetches down a blessing The child hath escaped many a stripe by his loud crying and the very unjust Judge cannot endure the widow's clamour Heartless motions do but teach us to deny fervent suits offer violence both to earth and heaven Christ would not answer the Woman but doth answer the Disciples Those that have a familiarity with God shall receive answers when strangers shall stand out Yea even of domesticks some are more intire He that lay in Jesus his bosome could receive that intelligence which was concealed from the rest But who can tell whether that silence or this answer be more grievous I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel What is this answer but a defence of that silence and seeming neglect Whilst he said nothing his forbearance might have been supposed to proceed from the necessity of some greater thoughts but now his answer professeth that silence to have proceeded from a willing resolution not to answer and therefore he doth not vouchsafe so much as to give to her the answer but to her solicitours that they might return his denial from him to her who had undertaken to derive her suit to him I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Like a faithfull Embassadour Christ hath an eye to his commission that may not be violated though to an apparent advantage whither he is not sent he may not go As he so all his have their fixed marks set at these they aim and think it not safe to shoot at rovers In matter of morality it is not for us to stand onely upon inhibitions avoiding what is forbidden but upon commands endeavouring onely what is injoyned We need no other rule of our life then the intention of our several stations And if he that was God would take no farther scope to himself then the limits of his commission how much doth it concern us frail men to keep within compass or what shall become of our lawlesness that live in a direct contrariety to the will of him that sent us Israel was Jacob's name from him derived to his posterity till the division of the Tribes under Jeroboam all that nation was Israel then the Father's name went to the most which were ten Tribes the name of the Son Juda to the best which were two Christ takes no notice of this unhappy division he remembers the ancient name which he gave to that faithfull wrastler It was this Christ with whom Jacob strove it was he that wrencht his hip and changed his name and dismist him with a blessing and now he cannot forget his old mercy to the house of Israel to that onely doth he profess himself sent Their first brood were Shepherds now they are Sheep and those not guarded not empastured but strayed and lost O Saviour we see thy charge the house of Israel not of Esau sheep not goats not wolves lost sheep not securely impaled in the confidence of their safe condition Woe were to us if thou wert not sent to us He is not a Jew which is one without Every Israelite is not a true one We are not of thy fold if we be not sheep thou wilt not reduce us to thy fold if we be not lost in our own apprehensions O Lord thou hast put a fleece upon our backs we have lost our selves enough make us so sensible of our own wandrings that we may find thee sent unto us and may be happily found of thee Hath not this poor woman yet done Can neither the silence of Christ nor his denial silence her Is it possible she should have any glimps of hope after so resolute repulses Yet still as if she saw no argument of discouragement she comes and worships and cries Lord help me She which could not in the house get a word of Christ she that saw her solicitours though Christ's own Disciples repelled yet she comes Before she followed now she overtakes him before she sued aloof now she comes close to him no contempt can cast her off Faith is an undaunted grace it hath a strong heart and a bold forehead Even very denials cannot dismay it much less delays She came not to face not to expostulate but to prostrate her self at his feet Her tongue worshipt him before now her knee The eye of her Faith saw that Divinity in Christ which bowed her to his earth There cannot be a fitter gesture of man to God then Adoration Her first suit was for mercy now for help There is no use of mercy but in helpfulness To be pitied without aid is but an addition to misery Who can blame us if we care not for an unprofitable compassion The very suit was gracious She saith not Lord if thou canst help me as the father of the Lunatick but professes the power whilst she begs the act
face even an Herod long'd for this and was never the better Onely this I find that this curiosity of the eye through the mercy of God gave occasion to the belief of the heart He that desires to see Jesus is in the way to injoy him there is not so much as a remote possibility in the man that cares not to behold him The eye were ill bestowed if it were onely to betray our Souls there are no less beneficial glaunces of it We are not worthy of this usefull casement of the heart if we do not thence send forth beams of holy desires and thereby re-convey profitable and saving objects I cannot marvell if Zacchaeus were desirous to see Jesus all the world was not worth this sight Old Simeon thought it best to have his eyes closed up with this spectacle as if he held it pity and disparagement to see ought after it The father of the faithfull rejoyced to see him though at nineteen hundred years distance and the great Doctour of the Gentiles stands upon this as his highest stair Have I not seen the Lord Jesus And yet O Saviour many a one saw thee here that shall never see thy face above yea that shall call to the hills to hide them from thy sight And if we had once known thee according to the flesh henceforth know we thee so no more What an happiness shall it be so to see thee glorious that in seeing thee we shall partake of thy glory O blessed vision to which all others are but penal and despicable Let me go into the Mint-house and see heaps of gold I am never the richer let me go to the Picturers I see goodly faces and am never the fairer let me go to the Court I see state and magnificence and am never the greater But O Saviour I cannot see thee and not be blessed I can see thee here though in a glass If the eye of my Faith be dim yet it is sure O let me be unquiet till I do now see thee through the veil of Heaven ere I shall see thee as I am seen Fain would Zacchaeus see Jesus but he could not It were strange if a man should not find some lett in good desires somewhat will be still in the way betwixt us and Christ Here are two hinderances met the one internal the other external the stature of the man the press of the multitude the greatness of the press the smalness of the stature There was great thronging in the streets of Jericho to see Jesus the doors the windows the bulks were all full Here are many beholders few disciples If gazing if profession were godliness Christ could not want clients now amongst all these wonderers there is but one Zacchaeus In vain should we boast of our forwardness to see and hear Christ in our streets if we receive him not into our hearts This croud hides Christ from Zacchaeus Alas how common a thing is it by the interposition of the throng of the world to be kept from the sight of our Jesus Here a carnal Fashionist says Away with this austere scrupulousness let me doe as the most The throng keeps this man from Christ There a superstitious Mis-believer says What tell you me of an handfull of reformed The whole world is ours This man is kept from Christ by the throng The covetous Mammonist says Let them that have leisure be devout my imployments are many my affairs great This man cannot see Christ for the throng There is no perfect view of Christ but in an holy secession The Spouse found not her Beloved till she was past the company then she found him whom her soul loved Whoso never seeks Christ but in the croud shall never find comfort in finding him the benefit of our publick view must be enjoyed in retiredness If in a press we see a man's face that is all when we have him alone every lim may be viewed O Saviour I would be loth not to see thee in thine Assemblies but I would be more loth not to see thee in my Closet Yet had Zacchaeus been but of the common pitch he might perhaps have seen Christ's face over his fellows shoulders now his stature adds to the disadvantage his body did not answer to his mind his desires were high whilst his body was low The best is however smalness of stature was disadvantageous in a level yet it is not so at height A little man if his eye be clear may look as high though not as far as the tallest The least Pigmy may from the lowest valley see the Sun or Stars as fully as a Giant upon the highest mountain O Saviour thou art now in Heaven the smalness of our person or of our condition cannot lett us from beholding thee The Soul hath no stature neither is Heaven to be had with reaching Onely clear thou the eyes of my Faith and I am high enough I regard not the Body the Soul is the man It is to small purpose that the Body is a Giant if the Soul be a Dwarf We have to doe with a God that measures us by our desires and not by our statures All the streets of Jericho however he seemed to the eye had not so tall a man as Zacchaeus The witty Publican easily finds both his hinderances and the ways of their redress His remedy for the press is to run before the multitude his remedy for his stature is to climb up into the Sycomore he imploys his feet in the one his hands and feet in the other In vain shall he hope to see Christ that doth not out-goe the common throng of the world The multitude is clustred together and moves too close to move fast we must be nimbler then they if ever we desire or expect to see Christ It is the charge of God Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evil we doe evil if we lag in good It is held commonly both wit and state for a man to keep his pace and that man escapes not censure who would be forwarder then his fellows Indeed for a man to run alone in ways of indifferency or to set an hypocritical face of out-running all others in a zealous profession when the heart lingers behind both these are justly hatefull but in an holy emulation to strive truly and really to out-strip others in degrees of Grace and a conscionable care of obedience this is truly Christian and worthy of him that would hope to be blessed with the sight of a Saviour Tell me ye fashionable Christians that stand upon terms of equality and will not go a foot before your neighbours in holy zeal and aidfull charity in conscionable sincerity tell me who hath made other mens progress a measure for yours Which of you says I will be no richer no greater no fairer no wiser no happier then my fellows Why should you then say I will be no holier Our life is but a Race every good End that a man proposes to
means to fill Hell lothness to displease A good heart will rather fall out with all the world then with God then with his Conscience The mis-grounded sorrow of worldly hearts doth not withhold them from their intended sins It is enough to vex not enough to restrain them Herod was sorry but he sends the Executioner for John's head One act hath made Herod a Tyrant and John a Martyr Herod a Tyrant in that without all legall proceedings without so much as false witnesses he takes off the head of a man of a Prophet It was Lust that carried Herod into Murther The proceedings of sin are more hardly avoided then the entrance Whoso gives himself leave to be wicked knows not where he shall stay John a Martyr in dying for bearing witness to the Truth Truth in life in judgment in doctrine It was the holy purpose of God that he which had baptized with water should now be baptized with bloud Never did God mean that his best children should dwell always upon earth should they stay here wherefore hath he provided Glory above Now would God have John delivered from a double prison of his own of Herod's and placed in the glorious liberty of his sons His head shall be taken off that it may be crowned with glory Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints O happy birth-day not of Herod but of the Baptist Now doth John enter into his joy and in his name is this day ever celebrated of the Church This blessed Fore-runner of Christ said of himself I must decrease He is decreased indeed and now grown shorter by the head but he is not so much decreased in stature as increased in glory For one minute's pain he is possessed of endless joy and as he came before his Saviour into the world so is he gone before him into Heaven The Head is brought in a Charger What a dish was here for a Feast How prodigiously insatiable is the cruelty of a wicked heart O blessed service fit for the table of Heaven It is not for thee O wicked Herod nor for thee malicious and wanton Herodias it is a dish precious and pleasing to the God of Heaven to the blessed Angels who look'd upon that Head with more delight in his constant fidelity then the beholders saw it with horrour and Herodias with contentment of revenge It is brought to Salome as the reward of her dance she presents it to her Mother as the dainty she had longed for Methinks I see how that chast and holy countenance was tossed by impure and filthy hands that true and faithfull tongue those sacred lips those pure eyes those mortified cheeks are now insultingly handled by an incestuous Harlot and made a scorn to the drunken eyes of Herod's guests Oh the wondrous judgments and incomprehensible dispositions of the holy wise Almighty God! He that was sanctified in the womb born and conceived with so much note and miracle What manner of child shall this be lived with so much reverence and observation is now at midnight obscurely murthered in a close prison and his head brought forth to the insultation and irrision of Harlots and Ruffians O God thou knowest what thou hast to doe with thine own Thus thou sufferest thine to be misused and slaughtered here below that thou mayest crown them above It should not be thus if thou didst not mean that their glory should be answerable to their depression XXII The five Loaves and two Fishes WHat flocking there was after Christ which way soever he went How did the Kingdom of Heaven suffer an holy violence in these his followers Their importunity drave him from the land to the sea When he was upon the sea of Tiberias they followed him with their eyes and when they saw which way he bent they followed him so fast on foot that they prevented his landing Whether it were that our Saviour staid some while upon the water as that which yielded him more quietness and freedom of respiration or whether the foot-passage as it oft falls out were the shorter cut by reason of the compasses of the water and the many elbows of the land I inquire not sure I am the wind did not so swiftly drive on the ship as desire and zeal drave on these eager clients Well did Christ see them all the way well did he know their steps and guided them and now he purposely goes to meet them whom he seemed to fly Nothing can please God more then our importunity in seeking him when he withdraws himself it is that he may be more earnestly inquired for Now then he comes to find them whom he made shew to decline and seeing a great multitude he passes from the ship to the shore That which brought him from Heaven to earth brought him also from the sea to land his compassion on their Souls that he might teach them compassion on their Bodies that he might heal and feed them Judaea was not large but populous it could not be but there must be amongst so many men many diseased it is no marvel if the report of so miraculous and universal sanations drew customers They found three advantages of cure above the power and performance of any earthly Physician Certainty Bounty Ease Certainty in that all comers were cured without fail Bounty in that they were cured without charge Ease in that they were cured without pain Far be it from us O Saviour to think that thy Glory hath abated of thy Mercy still and ever thou art our assured bountifull and perfect Physician who healest all our diseases and takest away all our infirmities O that we could have our faithfull recourse to thee in all our spiritual maladies it were as impossible we should want help as that thou shouldst want power and mercy That our Saviour might approve himself every way beneficent he that had filled the Souls of his Auditours with spiritual repast will now fill their Bodies with temporal and he that had approved himself the universal Physician of his Church will now be known to be the great housholder of the world by whose liberal provision mankind is maintained He did not more miraculously heal then he feeds miraculously The Disciples having well noted the diligent and importune attendence of the multitude now towards evening come to their Master in a care of their repast and discharge This is a desart place and the time is now past Send the multitude away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals How well it becomes even spiritual guides to regard the bodily necessities of God's people This is not directly in our charge neither may we leave our sacred ministration to serve Tables But yet as the bodily father must take care for the Soul of his child so must the spiritual have respect to the Body This is all that the world commonly looks after measuring their Pastours more by their dishes then by their doctrine or conversation
think the weather is changing to serenity O Saviour we may not always measure thy meaning by thy semblance sometimes what thou most intendest thou shewest least In our Afflictions thou turnest thy back upon us and hidest thy face from us when thou most mindest our distresses So Jonathan shot the arrows beyond David when he meant them to him So Joseph calls for Benjamin into bonds when his heart was bound to him in the strongest affection So the tender mother makes as if she would give away her crying child whom she hugs so much closer in her bosome If thou pass by us whilst we are struggling with the tempest we know it is not for want of mercy Thou canst not neglect us O let not us distrust thee What Object should have been so pleasing to the eyes of the Disciples as their Master and so much the more as he shewed his Divine power in this miraculous walk But lo contrarily they are troubled not with his presence but with this form of presence The supernatural works of God when we look upon them with our own eyes are subject to a dangerous misprision The very Sun-beams to whom we are beholden for our sight if we eye them directly blind us Miserable men we are ready to suspect Truths to run away from our safety to be afraid of our comforts to mis-know our best friends And why are they thus troubled They had thought they had seen a Spirit That there have been such apparitions of Spirits both good and evil hath ever been a Truth undoubtedly received of Pagans Jews Christians although in the blind times of Superstition there was much collusion mixed with some verities Crafty men and lying spirits agreed to abuse the credulous world But even where there was not Truth yet there was Horrour The very Good Angels were not seen without much fear their sight was construed to bode Death how much more the Evil which in their very nature are harmfull and pernicious We see not a Snake or a Toad without some recoiling of bloud and sensible reluctation although those creatures run away from us how much more must our hairs stand upright and our senses boggle at the sight of a Spirit whose both nature and will is contrary to ours and professedly bent to our hurt But say it had been what they mistook it for a Spirit why should they fear Had they well considered they had soon found that evil spirits are never the less present when they are not seen and never the less harmfull or malicious when they are present unseen Visibility adds nothing to their spite or mischief And could their eyes have been opened they had with Elisha's servant seen more with them then against them a sure though invisible guard of more powerfull Spirits and themselves under the protection of the God of Spirits so as they might have bidden a bold defiance to all the powers of darkness But partly their Faith was yet but in the bud and partly the presentation of this dreadfull Object was sudden and without the respite of a recollection and settlement of their thoughts Oh the weakness of our frail Nature who in the want of Faith are affrighted with the visible appearance of those adversaries whom we profess daily to resist and vanquish and with whom we know the Decree of God hath matched us in an everlasting conflict Are not these they that ejected Devils by their command Are not these of them that could say Master the evil spirits are subdued to us Yet now when they see but an imagined Spirit they fear What power there is in the eye to betray the heart Whilst Goliah was mingled with the rest of the Philistin hoast Israel camped boldly against them but when that Giant stalks out single between the two armies and fills and amazes their eyes with his hideous stature now they run away for fear Behold we are committed with Legions of Evil spirits and complain not Let but one of them give us some visible token of his presence we shreek and tremble and are not our selves Neither is our weakness more conspicuous then thy mercy O God in restraining these spiritual enemies from these dreadfull and ghastly representations of themselves to our eyes Might those infernal Spirits have liberty to appear how and when and to whom they would certainly not many would be left in their wits or in their lives It is thy power and goodness to frail mankind that they are kept in their chains and reserved in the darkness of their own spiritual being that we may both oppugn and subdue them unseen But oh the deplorable condition of reprobate souls If but the imagined sight of one of these spirits of darkness can so daunt the heart of those which are free from their power what a terrour shall it be to live perpetually in the sight yea under the torture of thousands of legions of millions of Devils Oh the madness of wilfull sinners that will needs run themselves headily into so dreadfull a damnation It was high time for our Saviour to speak What with the Tempest what with the Apparition the Disciples were almost lost with fear How seasonable are his gracious redresses Till they were thus affrighted he would not speak when they were thus affrighted he would not hold his peace If his presence were fearfull yet his word was comfortable Be of good chear it is I yea it is his word onely which must make his presence both known and comfortable He was present before they mistook him and feared there needs no other erection of their drooping hearts but It is I. It is cordial enough to us in the worst of our afflictions to be assured of Christ's presence with us Say but It is I O Saviour and let evils doe their worst thou needest not say any more Thy voice was evidence enough so well were the Disciples acquainted with the tongue of thee their Master that It is I was as much as an hundred names Thou art the good Shepherd we are not of thy Flock if we know thee not by thy voice from a thousand Even this one is a great word yea an ample style It is I. The same tongue that said to Moses I am hath sent thee saith now to the Disciples It is I I your Lord and Master I the Commander of winds and waters I the soveraign Lord of Heaven and earth I the God of Spirits Let Heaven be but as one scroll and let it be written all over with titles they cannot express more then It is I. Oh sweet and seasonable word of a gracious Saviour able to calm all tempests able to revive all hearts Say but so to my Soul and in spight of Hell I am safe No sooner hath Jesus said I then Peter answers Master He can instantly name him that did not name himself Every little hint is enough to Faith The Church sees her Beloved as well through the Lattice as through the open Window Which
touch What a pattern of powerfull Faith had we lost if our Saviour had not called this act to triall As her modesty hid her disease so it would have hid her vertue Christ will not suffer this secrecy Oh the marvellous but free dispensation of Christ One while he injoyns a silence to his cured Patients and is troubled with their divulgation of his favour another while as here he will not lose the honour of a secret mercy but fetches it out by his Inquisition by his profession Who hath touched me for I perceive virtue is gone out from me As we see in the great work of his Creation he hath placed some Stars in the midst of Heaven where they may be most conspicuous others he hath set in the Southern obscurity obvious to but few eyes in the Earth he hath planted some flowers and trees in the famous gardens of the World others no less beautifull in untracked Woods or wild Desarts where they are either not seen or not regarded O God if thou have intended to glorifie thy self by thy Graces in us thou wilt find means to fetch them forth into the notice of the World otherwise our very privacy shall content us and praise thee Yet even this great Faith wanted not some weakness It was a poor conceit in this Woman that she thought she might receive so sovereign a remedy from Christ without his heed without his knowledge Now that she might see she had trusted to a power which was not more bountifull then sensible and whose goodness did not exceed his apprehension but one that knew what he parted with and willingly parted with that which he knew beneficial to so faithfull a receiver he can say Some body hath touched me for I perceive virtue is gone out from me As there was an errour in her thought so in our Saviour's words there was a correction His mercy will not let her run away with that secret offence It is a great favour of God to take us in the manner and to shame our closeness We scour off the rust from a Weapon that we esteem and prune the Vine we care for O God do thou ever find me out in my Sin and do not pass over my least infirmities without a feeling controlment Neither doubt I but that herein O Saviour thou didst graciously forecast the securing of the Conscience of this faithfull though over-seen Patient which might well have afterwards raised some just scruples for the filching of a Cure for Unthahkfulness to the Authour of her Cure the continuance whereof she might have good reason to misdoubt being surreptitiously gotten ingratefully concealed For prevention of all these dangers and the full quieting of her troubled heart how fitly how mercifully didst thou bring forth this close business to the light and clear it to the bottom It is thy great mercy to foresee our perils and to remove them ere we can apprehend the fear of them as some skilfull Physician who perceiving a Fever or Phrensy coming which the distempered Patient little misdoubts by seasonable applications anticipates that grievous malady so as the sick man knows his safety ere he can suspect his danger Well might the Woman think He who can thus cure and thus know his cure can as well know my name and descry my person and shame and punish my ingratitude With a pale face therefore and a trembling foot she comes and falls down before him and humbly acknowledges what she had done what she had obtained But the Woman finding she was not hid c. Could she have perceived that she might have slily gone away with the Cure she had not confessed it So had she made God a loser of Glory and her self an unthankfull receiver of so great a Benefit Might we have our own wills we should be injurious both to God and our selves Nature lays such plots as would be sure to befool us and is witty in nothing but deceiving her self The onely way to bring us home is to find we are found and to be convinced of the discovery of all our evasions As some unskilfull Thief that finds the owner's eye was upon him in his pilfering laies down his stoln commodity with shame Contrarily when a man is possessed with a conceit of secrecy and cleanly escape he is emboldened in his leudness The Adulterer chuses the twilight and says No eye shall see me and joys in the sweetness of his stoln waters O God in the deepest darkness in my most inward retiredness when none sees me when I see not my self yet let me then see thine all-seeing eye upon me and if ever mine eyes shall be shut or held with a prevailing Temptation check me with a speedy reproof that with this abashed Patient I may come in and confess my errour and implore thy mercy It is no unusual thing for kindness to look sternly for the time that it may indear it self more when it lists to be discovered With a severe countenance did our Saviour look about him and ask Who touched me When the woman comes in trembling and confessing both her act and success he clears up his brows and speaks comfortably to her Daughter be of good chear thy faith hath made thee whole go in peace O sweet and seasonable word fit for those mercifull and Divine lips able to secure any heart to dispell any fears Still O Saviour thou doest thus to us when we fall down before thee in an awfull dejectedness thou rearest us up with a chearfull and compassionate incouragement when thou findest us bold and presumptuous thou lovest to take us down when humbled it is enough to have prostrated us Like as that Lion of Bethel worries the disobedient Prophet guards the poor Ass that stood quaking before him Or like some mighty wind that bears over a tall Elme or Cedar with the same breath that it raiseth a stooping Reed Or like some good Physician who finding the body obstructed and surcharged with ill humours evacuates it and when it is sufficiently pulled down raises it up with sovereign Cordials And still doe thou so to my Soul if at any time thou perceivest me stiff and rebellious ready to face out my sin against thee spare me not let me smart till I relent But a broken and contrite heart thou wilt not O Lord O Lord do not reject It is onely thy Word which gives what it requires comfort and confidence Had any other shaken her by the shoulder and cheared her up against those oppressive passions it had been but waste wind No voice but his who hath power to remit sin can secure the heart from the conscience of sin from the pangs of Conscience In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts O Lord thy comforts onely have power to refresh my soul Her cure was Christ's act yet he gives the praise of it to her Thy faith hath made thee whole He had said before Virtue is gone out from me now he
mourning thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow The mother shreeks the servants cry out the people make lamentation the minstrells howl and strike dolefully so as the ear might question whether the Ditty or the Instrument were more heavy If ever expressions of sorrow sound well it is when Death leads the quire Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise and turns these unseasonable mourners whether formal or serious out of doors Not that he dislikes Musick whether to condole or comfort but that he had life in his eye and would have them know that he held these Funeral ceremonies to be too early and long before their time Give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth Had she been dead she had but slept now she was not dead but asleep because he meant this nap of death should be so short and her awakening so speedy Death and Sleep are alike to him who can cast whom he will into the sleep of Death and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep Before the people and domesticks of Jairus held Jesus for a Prophet now they took him for a Dreamer Not dead but asleep They that came to mourn cannot now forbear to laugh Have we piped at so many Funerals and seen and lamented so many Corpses and cannot we distinguish betwixt Sleep and Death The eyes are set the breath is gone the lims are stiff and cold Who ever died if she do but sleep How easily may our Reason or Sense befool us in Divine matters Those that are competent Judges in natural things are ready to laugh God to scorn when he speaks beyond their compass and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief Vain and faithless men as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word and turn either Sleep into Death or Death into Sleep at pleasure Ere many minutes they shall be ashamed of their errour and incredulity There were witnesses enough of her death there shall not be many of her restoring Three choice Disciples and the two Parents are onely admitted to the view and testimony of this miraculous work The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty What did these scorners think and say when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors Doubtless the maid is but asleep the man fears lest the noise shall awake her we must speak and tread softly that we disquiet her not What will he and his Disciples doe the while Is it not to be feared they will startle her out of her rest Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsells think all his words and projects no better then foolishness But art thou O Saviour ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornfull unbelievers Because fools jear thee dost thou forbear thy work Surely I do not perceive that thou heedest them save for contempt or carest more for their words then their silence It is enough that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them He took her by the hand and called saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she arose straightway How could that touch that Call be other then effectual He who made that hand touched it and he who shall once say Arise ye dead said now Maid arise Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life The Soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of Spirits it cannot but go and come at his command When he says Maid arise the now-dissolved spirit knows his office his place and instantly re-assumes that room which by his appointment it had left O Saviour if thou do but bid my Soul to arise from the death of Sin it cannot lie still if thou bid my Body to arise from the grave my Soul cannot but glance down from her Heaven and animate it In vain shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee The Maid revives not now to languish for a time upon her sick-bed and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength but at once she arises from her death and from her couch at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution she finds her life and her feet at once at once she finds her feet and her stomack He commanded to give her meat Omnipotency doth not use to go the pace of Nature All God's immediate works are like himself perfect He that raised her supernaturally could have so fed her It was never the purpose of his Power to put ordinary Means out of office XXVI The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew now on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismay'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-expectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem Jerusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloudy issue of those designs yet he will go and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddenness of a surprisall O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisedom to expect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not through the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyours and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was He whose the earth was and the fulness thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet He who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritans He that filled and comprehended Heaven sendeth for shelter in a
not been hatefull and injurious XXVIII The Pool of Bethesda OTherwhere ye may look long and see no Miracle but here behold two Miracles in one view the former of the Angel curing Diseases the latter of the God of Angels viz. Christ Jesus preventing the Angel in his Cure Even the first Christ wrought by the Angel the second immediately by himself The first is incomparable for as Montanus truly observes there is no one miraculum perpetuum but this one in the whole Book of God Be content to spend this hour with me in the Porches of Bethesda and consider with me the Topography the Aitiology the Chronography of this Miracle These three limit our speech and your patient attention The Chronography which is first in place and time offers us two heads 1. a Feast of the Jews 2. Christ going up to the Feast The Jews were full of Holy-days both of God's institution and the Churche's Of God's both weekly monthly anniversary Weekly that one of seven which I would to God we had learned of them to keep better In this regard it was that Seneca said the Jews did Septimam aetatis partem perdere lose the seventh part of their life Monthly the New moons Numb 18. Anniversary Easter Pentecost and the September-feasts The Churche's both the Purim by Mardochaeus and the Encaenia by Judas Maccabaeus which yet Christ honoured by his solemnization John 10. Surely God did this for the chearfulness of his people in his service hence the Church hath laudably imitated this example To have no Feasts is sullen to have too many is Paganish and Superstitious Neither would God have cast the Christian Easter upon the just time of the Jewish Pasch and their Whitsontide upon the Jewish Pentecost if he would not have had these Feasts continued And why should the Christian Church have less power then the Jewish Synagogue Here was not a mere Feriation but a Feasting they must appear before God cum muneribus with gifts The tenth part of their increase must be spent upon the three solemn Feasts besides their former tithes to Levi Deut. 14.23 There was no Holy-day wherein they feasted above six hours and in some of them Tradition urged them to their quantities of drink And David when he would keep holy-day to the Ark allows every Israâ—lite a cake of bread a piece of flesh a bottle of wine not a dry dinner prandium caninum not a meer drinking of wine without meat but to make up a perfect feast Bread Flesh Wine 2 Sam. 6. The true Purims of this Island are those two Feasts of August and November He is no true Israelite that keeps them not as the days which the Lord hath made When are joy and triumphs seasonable if not at Feasts but not excess Pardon me I know not how Feasts are kept at the Court but as Job when he thought of the banquets of his Sons says It may be they have sinned so let me speak at peradventures If sensuall immoderation should have set her foot into these Christian Feasts let me at least say with indulgent Eli Non est bona fama filii It is no good report my sons Do ye think that S. Paul's rule Non in comessationibus ebrietate not in surfeiting and drunkenness was for work-days onely The Jews had a conceit that on their Sabbath and Feast-days the Devils fled from their Cities ad montes umbrosos to the shady mountains Let it not be said that on our Christian Feasts they should è montibus aulam petere and that he seeks and finds not loca arida but madida God forbid that Christians should sacrifice to Bacchus in stead of the ever-living God and that on the day when you should have been blown up by treacherous fire from earth to Heaven you should fetch down the fire of God's anger from Heaven upon you by swilling and surfeits God forbid God's service is unum necessarium one thing necessary saith Christ Homo ebrius superflua creatura A drunken man is a superfluous creature saith Ambrose How ill do those two agree together This I have been bold to say out of caution not of reproof Thus much that there was a Feast of the Jews Now what Feast it was is questionable whether the Pasch as Irenaeus and Beza with him thinks upon the warrant of John 4.35 where our Saviour had said Yet four months and then comes harvest or whether Pentecost which was fifty days from the shaking of the sheaf that was Easter Sunday as Cyrill Chrysostome Theophylact Euthymius and some later or whether one of the September Feasts as some others The excellency of the Feast makes for Easter the Feast 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of Interpreters for Pentecost the number of Feasts for September For as God delighted in the number of Seven the seventh day was holy the seventh year the seventh seventh year so he shewed it in the seventh month which reserves his number still September the first day whereof was the Sabbath of Trumpets the tenth dies expiationum and on the fifteenth began the Feast of Tabernacles for seven days It is an idleness to seek that which we are never the better when we have found What if Easter what if Tabernacles what if Pentecost what loss what gain is this Magnâ nos molestiâ Joannes liberâsset si unum adjecisset verbum John had eased us of much trouble if he had added but one word saith Maldonat But for us God give them sorrow which love it this is one of Saint Paul's 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vain disputations that he forbids his Timothy yea which is the subject thereof one of them which he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 foolish and unlearned questions 2 Tim. 2.23 Quantum mali facit nimia subtilitas How much mischief is done by too much subtility saith Seneca These are for some idle Cloisterers that have nothing to doe but to pick straws in Divinity Like to Appian the Grammarian that with long discourse would pick out of Homer's first verse of his Iliads and the first word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the number of the books of Iliads and Odysses or like Didymus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that spent some of his four thousand books about which was Homer's Country who was Aeneas's true mother what the age of Hecuba how long it was betwixt Homer and Orpheus or those wise Criticks of whom Seneca speaks that spend whole volumes whether Homer or Hesiod were the elder Non profuturam scientiam tradunt They vent an unprofitable skill as he said Let us be content with the learned ignorance of what God hath concealed and know that what he hath concealed will not avail us to know Rather let us inquire why Christ would go up to the Feast I find two silken cords that drew him up thither 1. His Obedience 2. His desire of manifesting his Glory First It was a generall Law All males must appear thrice a year before the Lord.
eternally possessed the glory of his Father without any witnesses in time the Angels were blessed with that sight and after that two bodily yet Heavenly witnesses were allowed Enoch and Elias Now in his humanity he was invested with glory he takes but three witnesses and those earthly and weak Peter James John And why these We may be too curious Peter because the eldest John because the dearest James because next Peter the zealousest Peter because he loved Christ most John because Christ most loved him James because next to both he loved and was loved most I had rather to have no reason but quia complacuit because it so pleased him Why may we not as well ask why he chose these twelve from others as why he chose these three out of the twelve If any Romanists will raise from hence any privilege to Peter which we could be well content to yield if that would make them ever the honester men they must remember that they must take company with them which these Pompeian spirits cannot abide As good no privilege as any partners And withall they must see him more taxed for his errour in this act then honoured by his presence at the act whereas the Beloved Disciple saw and erred not These same three which were witnesses of his Transfiguration in the mount were witnesses of his Agony in the garden all three and these three alone were present at both but both times sleeping These were arietes gregis the Bell-weathers of the flock as Austin calls them Oh weak devotion of three great Disciples These were Paul's three pillars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2.9 Christ takes them up twice once to be witnesses of his greatest Glory once of his greatest Extremity they sleep both times The other was in the night more tolerable this by day yea in a light above day Chrysostome would fain excuse it to be an amazedness not a sleep not considering that they slept both at that Glory and after in the Agony To see that Master praying one would have thought should have fetcht them on their knees especially to see those Heavenly affections look out at his Eyes to see his Soul lifted up in his Hands in that transported fashion to Heaven But now the hill hath wearied their lims their body clogs their Soul and they fall asleep Whilst Christ saw Divine visions they dreamed dreams whilst he was in another world ravished with the sight of his Father's Glory yea of his own they were in another world a world of fancies surprized with the cousin of death sleep Besides so gracious an example their own necessity quia incessanter pecco because I continually sin Bernard's reason might have moved them to pray rather then their Master and behold in stead of fixing their eyes upon Heaven they shut them in stead of lifting up their hearts their heads fall down upon their shoulders and shortly here was snorting in stead of sighs and prayers This was not Abraham's or Elihu's ecstatical sleep Job 33. not the sleep of the Church a waking sleep but the plain sleep of the eyes and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slumbring sleep which David denies to himself Psal 132. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound sleep which Solomon forbids Prov. 6.4 yea rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead sleep of Adam or Jonas and as Bernard had wont to say when he heard a Monk snort they did carnaliter seu seculariter dormire Prayer is an ordinary receit for sleep How prone are we to it when we should mind Divine things Adam slept in Paradise and lost a Rib but this sleep was of God's giving and this rib was of God's taking The good Husband slept and found tares Eutychus slept and fell Whilst Satan lulls us asleep as he doth always rock the cradle when we sleep in our devotions he ever takes some good from us or puts some evil in us or indangers us a deadly fall Away with this spiritual Lethargy Bernard had wont to say that those which sleep are dead to men those that are dead are asleep to God But I say those that sleep at Church are dead to God so we preach their Funeral Sermons in stead of hortatory And as he was wont to say he lost no time so much as that wherein he slept so let me adde there is no loss of time so desperate as of holy time Think that Christ saith to thee at every Sermon as he did to Peter Etiam Petre dormis Sleepest thou Peter couldst thou not wake with me one hour A slumbring and a drowzy heart do not become the business and presence of him that keepeth Israel and slumbers not These were the Attendents see the Companions of Christ As our glory is not consummate without society no more would Christ have his therefore his Transfiguration hath two Companions Moses Elias As Saint Paul says of himself Whether in the body or out of the body I know not God knows so say I of these two Of Eliah there may seem less doubt since we know that his body was assumed to Heaven and might as well come down for Christ's glory as go up for his own although some grave Authours as Calvin Oecolampadius Bale Fulk have held his body with Enoch's resolved into their elements sed ego non credulus illis Enoch translatus est in carne Elias carneus raptus est in coelum c. Enoch was translated in the flesh and Elias being yet in the flesh was taken into Heaven saith Hierome in his Epistle ad Pammachium And for Moses though it be rare and singular and Austin makes much scruple of it yet why might not he after death return in his body to the glory of Christ's Transfiguration as well as afterwards many of the Saints did to the glory of his Resurrection I cannot therefore with the Gloss think there is any reason why Moses should take another a borrowed body rather then his own Heaven could not give two fitter companions more admirable to the Jews for their Miracles more gracious with God for their Faith and Holiness Both of them admitted to the conference with God in Horeb both of them Types of Christ both of them fasted forty days both of them for the glory of God suffered many perils both divided the waters both the messengers of God to Kings both of them marvellous as in their life so in their end A chariot of Angels took away Elias he was sought by the Prophets and not found Michael strove with the Devil for the body of Moses he was sought for by the Jews and not found and now both of them are found here together on Tabor This Elias shews himself to the Royall Prophet of his Church this Moses shews himself to the true Michael Moses the publisher of the Law Elias the chief of the Prophets shew themselves to the God of the Law and Prophets Alter populi informator aliquando alter reformator
quandoque One the informer once of the people the other the reformer sometimes saith Tertull. in 4. advers Marcionem Alter initiator Veteris Testamenti alter consummator Novi One the first Register of the Old Testament the other the shutter up of the New I verily think with Hilary that these two are pointed at as the forerunners of the second coming of Christ as now they were the foretellers of his departure neither doubt I that these are the Two Witnesses which are alluded to in the Apocalyps howsoever divers of the Fathers have thrust Enoch into the place of Moses Look upon the place Apoc. 11.5 Who but Elias can be he of whom it is said If any man will hurt him fire proceedeth out of his mouth and devoureth his enemies alluding to 2 Kings 1 Who but Elias of whom it is said He hath power to shut the Heaven that it rain not in the days of his prophesying alluding to 1 Kings 18 Who but Moses of whom it is said He hath power to turn the waters into bloud and smite the earth with all manner of plagues alluding to Exod. 7. and 8 But take me aright let me not seem a friend to the Publicans of Rome an abettour of those Alcoran-like Fables of our Popish Doctours who not seeing the wood for trees do haerere in cortice stick in the bark taking all concerning that Antichrist according to the letter Odi arceo So shall Moses and Elias come again in those Witnesses as Elias is already come in John Baptist their Spirits shall be in these Witnesses whose Bodies and Spirits were witnesses both of the present Glory and future Passion of Christ Doubtless many thousand Angels saw this sight and were not seen these two both saw and were seen O how great an Happiness was it for these two great Prophets in their glorified flesh to see their glorified Saviour who before his Incarnation had spoken to them to speak to that Man God of whom they were glorified and to become Prophets not to men but to God And if Moses his face so shone before when he spoke to him without a body in mount Sinai in the midst of the flames and clouds how did it shine now when himself glorified speaks to him a man in Tabor in light and majesty Elias hid his face before with a mantle when he passed by him in the Rock now with open face he beholds him present and in his own glory adores his Let that impudent Marcion who ascribes the Law and Prophets to another God and devises an hostility betwixt Christ and them be ashamed to see Moses and Elias not onely in colloquio but in consortio claritatis not onely in conference but in a partnership of brightness as Tertull. speaks with Christ whom if he had misliked he had his choice of all the Quire of Heaven and now chusing them why were they not in sordibus tenebris in rags and darkness Sic inalienos demonstrat illos dum secum habet sic relinquendos docet quos sibi jungit sic destruit quos de radiis suis exstruit So doth he shew them far from strangeness to him whom he hath with him so doth he teach them to be forsaken whom he joyns with himself so doth he destroy those whom he graces with his beams of glory saith that Father His act verifies his word Think not that I come to destroy the Law or the Prophets I am not come to destroy but to fulfill them Matt. 5.17 Oh what consolation what confirmation was this to the Disciples to see such examples of their future Glory such witnesses and adorers of the eternal Deity of their Master They saw in Moses and Elias what they themselves should be How could they ever fear to be miserable that saw such precedents of their insuing glory how could they fear to die that saw in others the happiness of their own change The rich Glutton pleads with Abraham that if one came to them from the dead they will amend Abraham answers They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them Behold here is both Moses and the Prophets and these too come from the dead how can we now but be persuaded of the happy state of another world unless we will make our selves worse then the damned See and consider that the Saints of God are not lost but departed gone into a far country with their Master to return again richer and better then they went Lest we should think this the condition of Elias onely that was rapt into Heaven see here Moses matched with him that died and was buried And is this the state of these two Saints alone Shall none be seen with him in the Tabor of Heaven but those which have seen him in Horeb and Carmel O thou weak Christian was onely one or two lims of Christ's body glorious in the Transfiguration or the whole He is the Head we are the Members If Moses and Elias were more excellent parts Tongue or Hand let us be but Heels or Toes his body is not perfect in glory without ours When Christ which is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Colos 3.4 How truly may we say to death Rejoyce not mine enemy though I fall yet shall I rise yea I shall rise in falling We shall not all sleep we shall be changed saith S. Paul to his Thessalonians Elias was changed Moses slept both appeared to teach us that neither our sleep nor change can keep us from appearing with him When therefore thou shalt receive the sentence of death on mount Nebo or when the fiery chariot shall come and sweep thee from this vale of mortality remember thy glorious re-apparition with thy Saviour and thou canst not but be comforted and chearfully triumph over that last Enemy outfacing those terrours with the assurance of a blessed Resurrection to Glory To the which c. XXX The Transfiguration of CHRIST The Second Part. IT falls out with this Discourse as with Mount Tabor it self that it is more easily climbed with the eye then with the foot If we may not rather say of it as Josephus did of Sinai that it doth not onely ascensus hominum but aspectus fatigare weary not onely the steps but the very sight of men We had thought not to spend many breaths in the skirts of the hill the Circumstances and it hath cost us one hour's journey already and we were glad to rest us ere we can have left them below us One pause more I hope will overcome them and set us on the top No Circumstance remains undiscussed but this one What Moses and Elias did with Christ in their apparition For they were not as some sleepy attendents like the three Disciples in the beginning to be there and see nothing nor as some silent spectatours mute witnesses to see and say nothing but as if their Glory had no whit changed their profession they are Prophets still
there is happiness as sure as we know there is misery and mutability upon earth Oh our miserable sottishness and infidelity if we do not contemn the best offers of the world and lifting up our eyes and hearts to Heaven say Bonum est esse hîc Even so Lord Jesus come quickly To him that hath purchased and prepared this Glory for us together with the Father and Blessed Spirit one Incomprehensible God be all praise for ever Amen XXXI The Prosecution of the Transfiguration BEfore the Disciples eyes were dazzled with Glory now the brightness of that Glory is shaded with a Cloud Frail and feeble eyes of mortality cannot look upon an Heavenly luster That Cloud imports both Majesty and obscuration Majesty for it was the testimony of God's presence of old the Cloud covered the Mountain the Tabernacle the Oracle He that makes the clouds his chariot was in a cloud carried up into Heaven Where have we mention of any Divine representation but a Cloud is one part of it What comes nearer to Heaven either in place or resemblance Obscuration for as it shew'd there was a Majesty and that Divine so it shew'd them that the view of that Majesty was not for bodily eyes Like as when some great Prince walks under a Canopy that veil shews there is a Great person under it but withall restrains the eye from a free sight of his person And if the cloud were clear yet it shaded them Why then was this cloud interposed betwixt that glorious Vision and them but for a check of their bold eyes Had they too long gazed upon this resplendent spectacle as their eyes had been blinded so their hearts had perhaps grown to an over-bold familiarity with that Heavenly Object How seasonably doth the cloud intercept it The wise God knows our need of these vicissitudes and allays If we have a light we must have a cloud if a light to chear us we must have a cloud to humble us It was so in Sinai it was so in Sion it was so in Olivet it shall never be but so The naturall day and night do not more duely interchange then this light and cloud Above we shall have the light without the cloud a clear vision and fruition of God without all dim and sad interpositions below we cannot be free from these mists and clouds of sorrow and misapprehension But this was a bright cloud There is difference betwixt the cloud in Tabor and that in Sinai This was clear that darksome There is darkness in the Law there is light in the grace of the Gospel Moses was there spoken to in darkness here he was spoken with in light In that dark cloud there was terrour in this there was comfort Though it were a Cloud then yet it was bright and though it were bright yet it was a Cloud With much light there was some shade God would not speak to them concerning Christ out of darkness neither yet would he manifest himself to them in an absolute brightness All his appearances have this mixture What need I other instance then in these two Saints Moses spake oft to God mouth to mouth yet not so immediately but that there was ever somewhat drawn as a curtain betwixt God and him either fire in Horeb or smoak in Sinai so as his face was not more veiled from the people then God's from him Elias shall be spoken to by God but in the rock and under a mantle In vain shall we hope for any revelation from God but in a cloud Worldly hearts are in utter darkness they see not so much as the least glimpse of these Divine beams not a beam of that inaccessible light The best of his Saints see him here but in a cloud or in a glass Happy are we if God have honoured us with these Divine representations of himself Once in his light we shall see light I can easily think with what amazedness these three Disciples stood compassed in that bright Cloud expecting some miraculous event of so Heavenly a Vision when suddenly they might hear a voice sounding out of that Cloud saying This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him They need not be told whose that voice was the place the matter evinced it No Angel in Heaven could or durst have said so How gladly doth Peter afterwards recount it For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son c. It was onely the ear that was here taught not the eye As of Horeb so of Sinai so of Tabor might God say Ye saw no shape nor image in that day that the Lord spake unto you He that knows our proneness to idolatry avoids those occasions which we might take to abuse our own fancies Twice hath God spoken these words to his own Son from Heaven once in his Baptism and now again in his Transfiguration Here not without some oppositive comparison Not Moses not Elias but This. Moses and Elias were Servants this a Son Moses and Elias were sons but of grace and choice this is that Son the Son by nature Other sons are beloved as of favour and free election this is The Beloved as in the unity of his essence Others are so beloved that he is pleased with themselves this so beloved that in and for him he is pleased with mankind As the relation betwixt the Father and the Son is infinite so is the Love We measure the intension of Love by the extension The love that rests in the person affected alone is but streight true Love descends like Aaron's Ointment from the head to the skirts to children friends allies O incomprehensibly-large love of God the Father to the Son that for his sake he is pleased with the world O perfect and happy complacence Out of Christ there is nothing but enmity betwixt God and the Soul in him there can be nothing but peace When the beams are met in one center they do not onely heat but burn Our weak love is diffused to many God hath some the world more and therein wives children friends but this infinite love of God hath all the beams of it united in one onely Object the Son of his Love Neither doth he love any thing but in the participation of his Love in the derivation from it O God let me be found in Christ and how canst thou but be pleased with me This one voice proclaims Christ at once the Son of God the Reconciler of the world the Doctour and Law-giver of his Church As the Son of God he is essentially interessed in his Love as he is the Reconciler of the world in whom God is well pleased he doth most justly challenge our love and adherence as he is the Doctour and Law-giver he doth justly challenge our audience our obedience Even so Lord teach us to hear and obey thee as our Teacher to love thee and believe in
thee as our Reconciler and as the eternall Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all fallen down upon their faces Who can blame a mortall man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and bloud be other then swallowed up with the horrour of thy dreadfull sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those who have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terrour of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lie astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lie still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that sovereign hand of thine touch us when we lie in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Onely above is constant Happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone onely Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples find any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whilst thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee XXXII The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christ's He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penall and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denialls we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholsome doctrines upon the Souls of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and Pharisees came to cavill and carp at his teaching With what a pretence of zeal and justice yet do they put themselves into Christ's presence As lovers of Chastity and Sanctimony and haters of Uncleanness they bring to him a Woman taken in the flagrance of her Adultery And why the Woman rather since the Man's offence was equall if not more because he should have had more strength of resistence more grace not to tempt Was it out of necessity Perhaps the man knowing his danger made use of his strength to shift away and violently brake from his apprehenders Or was it out of cunning in that they hoped for more likely matter to accuse Christ in the case of the woman then of the man for that they supposed his mercifull disposition might more probably incline to compassionate her weakness rather then the stronger vessell Or was it rather out of partiality Was it not then as now that the weakest soonest suffers and impotency lays us open to the malice of an enemy Small flies hang in the webs whilst wasps break through without controll The wand and the sheet are for poor offenders the great either out-face or out-buy their shame A beggarly drunkard is haled to the Stocks whilst the rich is chambered up to sleep out his surfeit Out of these grounds is the woman brought to Christ Not to the mount of Olives not to the way not to his private lodging but to the Temple and that not to some obscure angle but into the face of the assembly They pleaded for her death the punishment which they would onwards inflict was her shame which must needs be so much more as there were more eyes to be witnesses of her guiltiness All the brood of sin affects darkness and secrecy but this more properly the twilight the night is for the adulterer It cannot be better fitted then to be dragged out into the light of the Sun and to be proclaimed with hootings and basins Oh the impudence of those men who can make merry professions of their own beastliness and boast of the shamefull trophees of their Lust Methinks I see this miserable Adulteress how she stands confounded amidst that gazing and disdainfull multitude how she hides her head how she wipes her blubbered face and weeping eyes In the mean time it is no dumb show that is here acted by these Scribes and Pharisees they step forth boldly to her accusation Master this Woman was taken in adultery in the very act How plausibly do they begin Had I stood by and heard them should I not have said What holy honest conscionable men are these what devout clients of Christ with what reverence they come to him with what zeal of justice When he that made and ransacks their bosom tells me All this is done but to tempt him Even the falsest hearts will have the plausiblest mouths like to Solomon's Curtizan their lips drop as an hony-comb and their mouth is smoother then oyl but their end is bitter as wormwood False and hollow Pharisees he is your Master
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
of Christ Doubtless at a Feast there was no want of the most curious linen for this purpose All this was nothing to her to approve her sincere Humility and hearty devotion to Christ her hair shall be put to this glorious office The hair is the chief ornament of womanhood the feet as they are the lowest part of the body so the meanest for account and homeliest for imployment and lo this Penitent bestows the chief ornament of her head on the meanest office to the feet of her Saviour That hair which she was wont to spread as a net to catch her amorous companions is honoured with the imployment of wiping the beautifull feet of him that brought the glad tidings of peace and salvation and might it have been any service to him to have licked the dust under those feet of his how gladly would she have done it Nothing can be mean that is done to the honour of a Saviour Never was any hair so preferred as this How I envy those locks that were graced with the touch of those sacred feet but much more those lips that kissed them Those lips that had been formerly inured to the wanton touches of her lascivious Lovers now sanctifie themselves with the testimony of her humble homage and dear respects to the Son of God Thus her oyntment hands eyes hair lips are now consecrated to the service of Christ her Saviour whom she had offended If our satisfaction be not in some kind proportionable to our offence we are no true Penitents All this while I hear not one word fall from the mouth of this woman What need her tongue speak when her eyes spake her hands spake her gesture her countenance her whole carriage was vocall I like this silent speaking well when our actions talk and our tongues hold their peace The common practice is contrary Mens tongues are busie but their hands are still All their Religion lies in their tongue their hands either doe nothing or ill so as their profession is but wind as their words Wherefore are words but for expression of the mind If that could be known by the eye or by the hand the language of both were alike There are no words amongst Spirits yet they perfectly understand each other The Heavens declare the glory of God All tongues cannot speak so loud as they that have none Give me the Christian that is seen and not heard The noise that our tongue makes in a formality of profession shall in the silence of our hands condemn us for Hypocrites The Pharisee saw all this but with an evil eye Had he not had some Grace he had never invited such a Guest as Jesus and if he had had Grace enough he had never entertained such a thought as this of the guest he invited If this man were a Prophet he would have known what manner of woman it is that toucheth him for she is a sinner How many errours in one breath Justly O Simon hath this one thought lost thee the thank of thy Feast Belike at the highest thou judgedst thy guest but a Prophet and now thou doubtest whether he were so much Besides this undervaluation how unjust is the ground of this doubt Every Prophet knew not every thing yea no Prophet ever knew all things Elisha knew the very secrets of the Assyrian privy-chamber yet he knew not the calamity of his worthy Hostess The finite knowledge of the ablest Seer reaches but so far as it will please God to extend it Well might he therefore have been a Prophet and in the knowledge of greater matters not have known this Unto this how weakly didst thou because of Christ's silent admission of the woman suppose him ignorant of her quality As if knowledge should be measured always by the noise of expression Stay but a while and thou shalt find that he well knew both her life and thy heart Besides how injuriously dost thou take this woman for what she was not conceiving as well thou mightest were not this woman a Convert she would never have offered her self into this presence Her modesty and her tears bewray her change and if she be changed why is she censured for what she is not Lastly how strong did it savour of the leven of thy profession that thou supposest were she what she was that it could not stand with the knowledge and holiness of a Prophet to admit of her least touch yea of her presence Whereas on the one side outward conversation in it self makes no man unclean or holy but according to the disposition of the patient on the other such was the purity and perfection of this thy glorious guest that it was not possibly infectible nor any way obnoxious to the danger of others sin He that said once Who touched me in regard of virtue issuing from him never said Whom have I touched in regard of any contagion incident to him We sinfull creatures in whom the Prince of this world finds too much may easily be tainted with other mens sins He who came to take away the sins of the world was uncapable of pollution by sin Had the woman then been still a sinner thy censure of Christ was proud and unjust The Pharisee spake but it was within himself and now behold Jesus answering said What we think we speak to our hearts and we speak to God and he equally hears as if it came out of our mouths Thoughts are not free Could men know and convince them they would be no less liable to censure then if they came forth cloathed with words God who hears them judges of them accordingly So here the heart of Simon speaks Jesus answers Jesus answers him but with a Parable He answers many a thought with Judgment the blasphemy of the heart the murther of the heart the adultery of the heart are answered by him with reall vengeance For Simon our Saviour saw his errour was either out of simple ignorance or weak mistaking where he saw no malice then it is enough to answer with a gentle conviction The convictive answer of Christ is by way of Parable The wisedom of God knows how to circumvent us for our gain and can speak that pleasingly by a prudent circumlocution which right-down would not be digested Had our Saviour said in plain terms Simon whether dost thou or this sinner love me more the Pharisee could not for shame but have stood upon his reputation and in a scorn of the comparison have protested his exceeding respects to Christ Now ere he is aware he is fetch'd in to give sentence against himself for her whom he condemned O Saviour thou hast made us fishers of men how should we learn of thee so to bait our hooks that they may be most likely to take Thou the great Housholder of thy Church hast provided victuals for thy family thou hast appointed us to dress them if we do not so cook them as that they may fit the palats to which they are intended we do
Devotion neglected not any of those sacred Solemnities will not neglect the due opportunities of his bodily refreshing as not thinking it meet to travell and preach harbourless he diverts where he knew his welcome to the village of Bethany There dwelt the two devout Sisters with their Brother his Friend Lazarus their roof receives him O happy house into which the Son of God vouchsafed to set his foot O blessed women that had the grace to be the Hostesses to the God of Heaven How should I envy your felicity herein if I did not see the same favour if I be not wanting to my self lying open to me I have two ways to entertain my Saviour in his Members and in himself In his Members by Charity and Hospitableness what I doe to one of those his little ones I doe to him In himself by Faith If any man open he will come in and sup with him O Saviour thou standest at the door of our hearts and knockest by the solicitations of thy Messengers by the sense of thy Chastisements by the motions of thy Spirit if we open to thee by a willing admission and faithfull welcome thou wilt be sure to take up our Souls with thy gracious presence and not to sit with us for a momentany meal but to dwell with us for ever Lo thou didst but call in at Bethany but here shall be thy rest for everlasting Martha it seems as being the elder Sister bore the name of the House-keeper Mary was her assistent in the charge A Blessed pair Sisters not more in Nature then Grace in spirit no less then in flesh How happy a thing it is when all the parties in a family are joyntly agreed to entertain Christ No sooner is Jesus entred into the house then he falls to preaching that no time may be lost he stays not so much as till his meat be made ready but whilst his bodily repast was in hand provides spiritual food for his Hosts It was his meat and drink to doe the will of his Father he fed more upon his own diet then he could possibly upon theirs his best chear was to see them spiritually fed How should we whom he hath called to this sacred Function be instant in season and out of season We are by his sacred ordination the Lights of the world No sooner is the candle lighted then it gives that light which it hath and never intermits till it be wasted to the snuff Both the Sisters for a time sate attentively listening to the words of Christ Houshold occasions call Martha away Mary sits still at his feet and hears Whether shall we more praise her Humility or her Docility I do not see her take a stool and sit by him or a chair and sit above him but as desiring to shew her heart was as low as her knees she sits at his feet She was lowly set richly warmed with those Heavenly beams The greater submission the more Grace If there be one hollow in the valley lower then another thither the waters gather Martha's house is become a Divinity-school Jesus as the Doctour sits in the chair Martha Mary and the rest sit as Disciples at his feet Standing implies a readiness for motion Sitting a settled composedness to this holy attendence Had these two Sisters provided our Saviour never such delicates and waited on his trencher never so officiously yet had they not listened to his instruction they had not bidden him welcome neither had he so well liked his entertainment This was the way to feast him to feed their ears by his Heavenly Doctrine His best chear is our proficiency our best chear is his Word O Saviour let my Soul be thus feasted by thee do thou thus feast thy self by feeding me this mutual diet shall be thy praise and my happiness Though Martha was for the time an attentive hearer yet now her care of Christ's entertainment carries her into the Kitchin Mary sits still Neither was Mary more devout then Martha busie Martha cares to feast Jesus Mary to be feasted of him There was more solicitude in Martha's active part more piety in Mary's sedentary attendence I know not in whether more zeal Good Martha was desirous to express her joy and thankfulness for the presence of so blessed a Guest by the actions of her carefull and plentious entertainment I know not how to censure the Holy woman for her excess of care to welcome her Saviour Sure she her self thought she did well and out of that confidence fears not to complain to Christ of her Sister I do not see her come to her Sister and whisper in her ear the great need of her aid but she comes to Jesus and in a kind of unkind expostulation of her neglect makes her moan to him Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone Why did she not rather make her first address to her Sister Was it for that she knew Mary was so tied by the ears with those adamantine chains that came from the mouth of Christ that untill his silence and dismission she had no power to stir Or was it out of an honour and respect to Christ that in his presence she would not presume to call off her Sister without his leave Howsoever I cannot excuse the Holy woman from some weaknesses It was a fault to measure her Sister by her self and apprehending her own act to be good to think her Sister could not doe well if she did not so too Whereas Goodness hath much latitude Ill is opposed to Good not Good to Good Neither in things lawfull or indifferent are others bound to our examples Mary might hear Martha might serve and both doe well Mary did not censure Martha for her rising from the feet of Christ to prepare his meal neither should Martha have censured Mary for sitting at Christ's feet to feed her Soul It was a fault that she thought an excessive care of a liberal outward entertainment of Christ was to be preferred to a diligent attention to Christ's spirituall entertainment of them It was a fault that she durst presume to question our Saviour of some kind of unrespect to her toil Lord dost thou not care What saiest thou Martha Dost thou challenge the Lord of Heaven and earth of incogitancy and neglect Dost thou take upon thee to prescribe unto that infinite Wisedom in stead of receiving directions from him It is well thou mettest with a Saviour whose gracious mildness knows how to pardon and pity the errours of our zeal Yet I must needs say here wanted not fair pretences for the ground of this thy expostulation Thou the elder Sister workest Mary the younger sits still And what work was thine but the hospitall receit of thy Saviour and his train Had it been for thine own paunch or for some carnal friends it had been less excusable now it was for Christ himself to whom thou couldst never be too obsequious But all this cannot deliver thee
and foretold the approach of his dissolution When men are near their end and ready to make their Will then is it seasonable to sue for Legacies Thus did the Mother of the two Zebedees therein well approving both her Wisedom and her Faith Wisedom in the fit choice of her opportunity Faith in taking such an opportunity The suit is half obtained that is seasonably made To have made this motion at the entry into their attendence had been absurd and had justly seemed to challenge a denial It was at the parting of the Angel that Jacob would be blessed The double spirit of Elijah is not sued for till his ascending But O the admirable Faith of this good woman When she heard the discourse of Christ's Sufferings and Death she talks of his Glory when she hears of his Cross she speaks of his Crown If she had seen Herod come and tender his Scepter unto Christ or the Elders of the Jews come upon their knees with a submissive profer of their allegeance she might have had some reason to entertain the thoughts of a Kingdom but now whilst the sound of betraying suffering dying was in her ear to make account of and suit for a room in his Kingdome it argues a belief able to triumph over all discouragements It was nothing for the Disciples when they saw him after his conquest of death and rising from the grave to ask him Master wilt thou now restore the kingdom unto Israel but for a silly woman to look through his future Death and Passion at his Resurrection and Glory it is no less worthy of wonder then praise To hear a man in his best health and vigour to talk of his confidence in God and assurance of Divine favour cannot be much worth but if in extremities we can believe above hope against hope our Faith is so much more noble as our difficulties are greater Never sweeter perfume arose from any altar then that which ascended from Job's dunghill I know that my Redeemer liveth What a strange style is this that is given to this woman It had been as easie to have said the wife of Zebedee or the sister of Mary or of Joseph or as her name was plain Salome but now by an unusual description she is styled The Mother of Zebedee's children Zebedee was an obscure man she as his wife was no better the greatest honour she ever had or could have was to have two such sons as James and John these give a title to both their Parents Honour ascends as well as descends Holy Children dignifie the loyns and womb from whence they proceed no less then their Parents traduce honour unto them Salome might be a good wife a good huswife a good woman a good neighbour all these cannot ennoble her so much as the mother of Zebedee's children What a world of pain toil care cost there is in the birth and education of Children Their good proof requites all with advantage Next to happiness in our selves is to be happy in a gracious Issue The suit was the sons but by the mouth of their mother it was their best policy to speak by her lips Even these Fishermen had already learned craftily to fish for promotion Ambition was not so bold in them as to shew her own face the envy of the suit shall thus be avoided which could not but follow upon their personall request If it were granted they had what they would if not it was but the repulse of a woman's motion which must needs be so much more pardonable because it was of a mother for her sons It is not discommendable in parents to seek the preferment of their children Why may not Abraham sue for an Ismael So it be by lawfull means in a moderate measure in due order this endeavour cannot be amiss It is the neglect of circumstances that makes these desires sinfull Oh the madness of those Parents that care not which way they raise an house that desire rather to leave their children great then good that are more ambitious to have their sons Lords on earth then Kings in Heaven Yet I commend thee Salome that thy first plot was to have thy sons Disciples of Christ then after to prefer them to the best places of that attendence It is the true method of Divine prudence O God first to make our children happy with the honour of thy service and then to endeavour their meet advancement upon earth The mother is put upon this suit by her sons their heart was in her lips They were not so mortified by their continual conversation with Christ hearing his Heavenly doctrine seeing his Divine carriage but that their minds were yet roving after temporal Honours Pride is the inmost coat which we put off last and which we put on first Who can wonder to see some sparks of weak and worldly desires in their holiest teachers when the blessed Apostles were not free from some ambitious thoughts whilst they sate at the feet yea in the bosome of their Saviour The near kindred this woman could challenge of Christ might seem to give her just colour of more familiarity yet now that she comes upon a suit she submits her self to the lowest gesture of suppliants We need not be taught that it is fit for petitioners to the Great to present their humble supplications upon their knees O Saviour if this woman so nearly allied to thee according to the flesh coming but upon a temporal occasion to thee being as then compassed about with humane infirmities adored thee ere she durst sue to thee what reverence is enough for us that come to thee upon spiritual suits sitting now in the height of Heavenly Glory and Majesty Say then thou wife of Zebedee what is it that thou cravest of thine Omnipotent kinsman A certain thing Speak out woman what is this certain thing that thou cravest How poor and weak is this supplicatory anticipation to him that knew thy thoughts ere thou utteredst them ere thou entertainedst them We are all in this tune every one would have something such perhaps as we are ashamed to utter The Proud man would have a certain thing Honour in the world the Covetous would have a certain thing too Wealth and abundance the Malicious would have a certain thing Revenge on his enemies the Epicure would have Pleasure and Long life the Barren Children the Wanton Beauty Each one would be humoured in his own desire though in variety yea contradiction to other though in opposition not more to God's will then our own good How this suit sticks in her teeth and dares not freely come forth because it is guilty of its own faultiness What a difference there is betwixt the prayers of Faith and the motions of Self-love and Infidelity Those come forth with boldness as knowing their own welcome and being well assured both of their warrant and acceptation these stand blushing at the door not daring to appear like to some baffled suit conscious to its
own unworthiness and just repulse Our inordinate desires are worthy of a check when we know that our requests are holy we cannot come with too much confidence to the throne of Grace He that knew all their thoughts afar off yet as if he had been a stranger to their purposes asks What wouldst thou Our infirmities do then best shame us when they are fetcht out of our own mouths Like as our prayers also serve not to acquaint God with our wants but to make us the more capable of his mercies The suit is drawn from her now she must speak Grant that these my two sons may sit one on thy right hand the other on thy left in thy Kingdom It is hard to say whether out of more pride or ignorance It was as received as erroneous a conceit amongst the very Disciples of Christ that he should raise up a Temporal Kingdom over the now-tributary and beslaved people of Israel The Romans were now their masters their fancy was that their Messias should shake off this yoke and reduce them to their former Liberty So grounded was this opinion that the two Disciples in their walk to Emmaus could say We trusted it had been he that should have delivered Israel and when after his Resurrection he was walking up mount Olivet towards Heaven his very Apostles could ask him if he would now restore that long-expected Kingdom How should we mitigate our censures of our Christian brethren if either they mistake or know not some secondary truths of Religion when the domestick attendents of Christ who heard him every day till the very point of his Ascension misapprehended the chief cause of his coming into the world and the state of his Kingdom If our Charity may not bear with small faults what doe we under his name that conniv'd at greater Truth is as the Sun bright in it self yet there are many close corners into which it never shined O God if thou open our hearts we shall take in those beams till thou doe so teach us to attend patiently for our selves charitably for others These Fishermen had so much Courtship to know that the right hand and the left of any Prince were the chief places of Honour Our Saviour had said that his twelve Followers should sit upon twelve thrones and judge the twelve Tribes of Israel This good woman would have her two sons next to his person the prime Peers of his Kingdom Every one is apt to wish the best to his own Worldly Honour is neither worth our suit nor unworthy our acceptance Yea Salome had thy mind been in Heaven hadst thou intended this desired preeminence of that celestial state of Glory yet I know not how to justifie thine ambition Wouldst thou have thy sons preferred to the Father of the faithfull to the blessed Mother of thy Saviour That very wish were presumptuous For me O God my ambition shall go so high as to be a Saint in Heaven and to live as holily on earth as the best but for precedency of Heavenly honour I do not I dare not affect it It is enough for me if I may lift up my head amongst the heels of thy Blessed ones The mother asks the sons have the answer She was but their tongue they shall be her ears God ever imputes the acts to the first mover rather then to the instrument It was a sore check Ye know not what ye ask Tn our ordinary communication to speak idly is sin but in our suits to Christ to be so inconsiderate as not to understand our own petitions must needs be a foul offence As Faith is the ground of our Prayers so Knowledge is the ground of our Faith If we come with indigested requests we profane that Name we invoke To convince their unfitness for Glory they are sent to their impotency in suffering Are ye able to drink of the cup whereof I shall drink and to be baptized with the Baptism wherewith I am baptized O Saviour even thou who wert one with thy Father hast a cup of thine own never Potion was so bitter as that which was mixed for thee Yea even thy draught is stinted it is not enough for thee to sip of this Cup thou must drink it up to the very dregs When the vinegar and gall were tendred to thee by men thou didst but kiss the cup but when thy Father gave into thine hands a potion infinitely more distastfull thou for our health didst drink deep of it even to the bottom and saidst It is finished And can we repine at those unpleasing draughts of Affliction that are tempered for us sinfull men when we see thee the Son of thy Father's love thus dieted We pledge thee O Blessed Saviour we pledge thee according to our weakness who hast begun to us in thy powerfull sufferings Onely do thou enable us after some four faces made in our reluctation yet at last willingly to pledge thee in our constant Sufferings for thee As thou must be drenched within so must thou be baptized without Thy Baptism is not of water but of bloud both these came from thee in thy Passion we cannot be thine if we partake not of both If thou hast not grudged thy precious bloud to us well maist thou challenge some worthless drops from us When they talk of thy Kingdome thou speakest of thy bitter Cup of thy bloudy Baptism Suffering is the way to reigning Through many tribulations must we enter into the Kingdome of Heaven There was never wedge of gold that did not first pass the fire there was never pure grain that did not undergoe the flail In vain shall we dream of our immediate passage from the pleasures and jollity of earth to the glory of Heaven Let who will hope to walk upon Roses and Violets to the throne of Heaven O Saviour let me trace thee by the track of thy Bloud and by thy red steps follow thee to thine eternall rest and Happiness I know this is no easy task else thou hadst never said Are ye able Who should be able if not they that had been so long blessed with thy presence informed by thy doctrine and as it were beforehand possessed of their Heaven in thee Thou hadst never made them judges of their power if thou couldst not have convinced them of their weakness Alas how full of feebleness is our body and our mind of impatience If but a Bee sting our flesh it swells and if but a tooth ake the head and heart complain How small trifles make us weary of our selves What can we doe without thee without thee what can we suffer If thou be not O Lord strong in my weakness I cannot be so much as weak I cannot so much as be Oh do thou prepare me for my day and enable me to my trialls I can doe all things through thee that strengthenest me The motion of the two Disciples was not more full of infirmity then their answer We are able Out of an eager
I said this for their sakes that they might believe Mercifull Saviour how can we enough admire thy goodness who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions Alas what wert thou the better if they believed thee sent from God what wert thou the worse if they believed it not Thy perfection and glory stands not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike but is reall in thy self and that infinite without possibility of our increase or diminution We we onely are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receit or rejection yet so dost thou affect our belief as if it were more thine advantage then ours O Saviour whilst thou spak'st to thy Father thou liftedst up thine eyes now thou wert to speak unto dead Lazarus thou liftedst up thy voice and criedst aloud Lazarus come forth Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection since we faintly require what we care not to obtain and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire Was it that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work Was it that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act no magicall incantations but authoritative and Divine commands Was it to signifie that Lazarus his Soul was called from far the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world Was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus whom thou hadst reported to sleep since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call Or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last Trumpet which shall sound into all graves and raise all flesh from their dust Even so still Lord when thou wouldst raise a Soul from the death of sin and grave of corruption no easie voice will serve Thy strongest commands thy loudest denunciations of Judgments the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy Mercies are but enough How familiar a word is this Lazarus come forth no other then he was wont to use whilst they lived together Neither doth he say Lazarus revive but as if he supposed him already living Lazarus come forth To let them know that those who are dead to us are to and with him alive yea in a more entire and feeling society then whilst they carried their clay about them Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour Neither was the word more familiar then commanding Lazarus come forth Here is no suit to his Father no adjuration to the deceased but a flat and absolute injunction Come forth O Saviour that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottom of my grave and raising me up out of my dust that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains and fetch up the dead out of the lowest deeps Thy word made all thy word shall repair all Hence all ye diffident fears he whom I trust is Omnipotent It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corps in linen to tie the hands and feet and to cover the face of the dead The Fall of man besides weakness brought shame upon him ever since even whilst he lives the whole Body is covered but the Face because some sparks of that extinct Majesty remain there is wont to be left open In death all those poor remainders being gone and leaving deformity and gastliness in the room of them the Face is covered also There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters One Almighty word hath loosed both and now he that was bound came forth He whose power could not be hindred by the chains of death cannot be hindred by linen bonds He that gave life gave motion gave direction He that guided the Soul of Lazarus into the body guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces No doubt the same power slackned those swathing-bands of death that the feet might have some little scope to move though not with that freedome that followed after Thou didst not onely O Saviour raise the body of Lazarus but the Faith of the beholders They cannot deny him dead whom they saw rising they see the signs of death with the proofs of life Those very swathes convinced him to be the man that was raised Thy less Miracle confirms the greater both confirm the Faith of the beholders O clear and irrefragable example of our resuscitation Say now ye shameless Sadducees with what face can ye deny the Resurrection of the body when ye see Lazarus after four-days death rising up out of his grave And if Lazarus did thus start up at the bleating of this Lamb of God that was now every day preparing for the slaughter-house how shall the dead be rouzed up out of their graves by the roaring of that glorious and immortall Lion whose voice shall shake the powers of Heaven and move the very foundations of the earth With what strange amazedness do we think that Martha and Mary the Jews and the Disciples look'd to see Lazarus come forth in his winding-sheet shackled with his linen fetters and walk towards them Doubtless fear and horrour strove in them whether should be for the time more predominant We love our friends dearly but to see them again after their known death and that in the very robes of the grave must needs set up the hair in a kind of uncouth rigour And now though it had been most easy for him that brake the adamantine fetters of death to have broke in pieces those linen ligaments wherewith his raised Lazarus was encumbred yet he will not doe it but by their hands He that said Remove the stone said Loose Lazarus He will not have us expect his immediate help in that we can doe for our selves It is both a laziness and a presumptuous tempting of God to look for an extraordinary and supernaturall help from God where he hath enabled us with common aid What strange salutations do we think there were betwixt Lazarus and Christ that had raised him betwixt Lazarus and his Sisters and neighbours and friends what amazed looks what unusuall complements For Lazarus was himself at once here was no leisure of degrees to reduce him to his wonted perfection neither did he stay to rub his eyes and stretch his benummed lims nor take time to put off that dead sleep wherewith he had been seized but instantly he is both alive and fresh and vigorous if they do but let him goe he walks so as if he had ailed nothing and receives and gives mutuall gratulations I leave them entertaining each other with glad embraces with discourses of reciprocall admiration with praises and adorations of that God and Saviour that had fetched him into life XLII CHRIST's Procession to the Temple NEver did our Saviour take so much state upon him as now that he was going towards his
the bag and over-lov'd that which he bare That heart which hath once enslaved it self to red and white earth may be made any thing Who can trust to the power of good means when Judas who heard Christ daily whom others heard to preach Christ daily who daily saw Christ's Miracles and daily wrought Miracles in Christ's name is at his best a Thief and ere long a Traitour That crafty and malignant Spirit which presided in that bloudy counsel hath easily found out a fit instrument for this Hellish plot As God knows so Satan guesses who are his and will be sure to make use of his own If Judas were Christ's domestick yet he was Mammon's servant he could not but hate that Master whom he formally professed to serve whilst he really served that master which Christ professed to hate He is but in his trade whilst he is bartering even for his Master What will ye give me and I will deliver him unto you Saidst thou not well O Saviour I have chosen you twelve and one of you is a Devil Thou that knewest to distinguish betwixt men and spirits callest Judas by his right name Loe he is become a Tempter to the worst of evils Wretched Judas whether shall I more abhor thy treachery of wonder at thy folly What will they what can they give thee valuable to that head Which thou proferest to sale Were they able to pay or thou capable to receive all those precious metalls that are laid up in the secret cabins of the whole earth how were this price equivalent to the worth of him that made them Had they been able to have fetch'd down those rich and glittering spangles of Heaven and to have put them into thy fist what had this been to weigh with a God How basely therefore dost thou speak of chaffering for him whose the world was What will ye give me Alas what were they what had they miserable men to pay for such a purchace The time was when he that set thee on work could say All the Kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them are mine and I give them to whom I please all these will I give thee Had he now made that offer to thee in this wofull bargain it might have carried some colour of a temptation and even thus it had been a match ill made But for thee to tender a trade of so invaluable a commodity to these pelting petty-chapmen for thirty poor silverlings it was no less base then wicked How unequall is this rate Thou that valuedst Mary's ointment which she bestowed upon the feet of Christ at three hundred pieces of silver sellest thy Master on whom that precious odour was spent at thirty Worldly hearts are peny-wise and pound-foolish they know how to set high prices upon the worthless trash of this world but for Heavenly things or the God that owns them these they shamefully undervalue And I will deliver him unto you False and presumptuous Judas it was more then thou couldst doe thy price was not more too low then thy undertaking was too high Had all the powers of Hell combined with thee they could not have delivered thy Master into the hands of men The act was none but his own all that he did all that he suffered was perfectly voluntary Had he pleased to resist how easily had he with one breath blown thee and thy complices down into their Hell It is no thank to thee that he would be delivered O Saviour all our safety all our comfort depends not so much upon thine act as upon thy will in vain should we have hoped for the benefit of a forced redemption The bargain is driven the price paid Judas returns and looks no less smoothly upon his Master and his fellows then as if he had done no disservice What cares he his heart tells him he is rich though it tell him he is false He was not now first an Hypocrite The Passeover is at hand no man is so busy to prepare for it or more devoutly forward to receive it then Judas Oh the sottishness and obdureness of this son of Perdition How many proofs had he formerly of his Master's Omniscience There was no day wherein he saw not that thoughts and things absent came familiar under his cognisance yet this Miscreant dares plot a secret villany against his person and face it if he cannot be honest yet he will be close That he may be notoriously impudent he shall know he is descried whilst he thinks fit to conceal his treachery our Saviour thinks not fit to conceal the knowledge of that treacherous conspiracy Verily I say unto you that one of you shall betray me Who would not think but that discovered wickedness should be ashamed of it self Did not Judas think we blush and grow pale again and cast down his guilty eyes and turn away his troubled countenance at so galling an intimation Custome of sin steels the brow and makes it uncapable of any relenting impressions Could the other Disciples have discerned any change in any one of their faces they had not been so sorrowfully affected with the charge Methinks I see how intentively they bent their eyes upon each others as if they would have look'd through those windows down into the bosome with what self-confidence with what mutuall jealousie they perused each others foreheads and now as rather thinking fit to distrust their own innocence then their Master's assertion each trembles to say Lord is it I It is possible there may lurk secret wickedness in some blind corner of the heart which we know not of It is possible that time and temptation working upon our corruption may at last draw us into some such sin as we could not fore-believe Whither may we not fall if we be left to our own strength It is both wise and holy to misdoubt the worst Lord is it I In the mean time how fair hath Judas all this while carried with his fellows Had his former life bewrayed any falshood or misdemeanour they had soon found where to pitch their just suspicion now Judas goes for so honest a man that every Disciple is rather ready to suspect himself then him It is true he was a thief but who knows that besides his Maker The outsides of men are no less deceitfull then their hearts It is not more unsafe to judge by outward appearances then it is uncharitable not to judge so Oh the head-strong resolutions of wickedness not to be checked by any opposition Who would not but have thought if the notice of an intended evil could not have prevented it yet that the threats of judgment should have affrighted the boldest offender Judas can sit by and hear his Master say Wo be to the man by whom the Son of man is betraied it had been better for that man never to have been born and is no more blank'd then very innocence but thinks What care I I have the money I shall escape the shame the fact
meek tongue smites him gently who had furiously smote thine enemy Put up thy sword It was Peter's sword but to put up not to use there is a sword which Peter may use but it is of another metall Our weapons are as our warfare spiritual if he smite not with this he incurs no less blame then for smiting with the other as for this material sword what should he doe with it that is not allowed to strike When the Prince of Peace bade his followers sell their coat and buy a sword he meant to insinuate the need of these arms not their improvement and to teach them the danger of the time not the manner of the repulse of danger When they therefore said Behold here are two swords he answered It is enough he said not Go buy more More had not been enow if a bodily defence had been intended David's tower had been too streight to yield sufficient furniture of this kind When it comes to use Peter's own sword is too much Put up thy sword Indeed there is a temporal sword and that sword must be drawn else wherefore is it but drawn by him that bears it and he bears it that is ordained to be an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doeth evil for he bears not the sword in vain If another man draw it it cuts his fingers and draws so much bloud of him that unwarrantably wields it as that he who takes the sword shall perish with the sword Can I chuse but wonder how Peter could thus strike unwounded how he whose first blow made the fray could escape hewing in pieces from that band of Ruffians This could not have been if thy power O Saviour had not restrained their rage if thy seasonable and sharp reproof had not prevented their revenge Now for ought I see Peter smarts no less then Malchus neither is Peter's ear less smitten by the mild tongue of his Master then Malchus his ear by the hand of Peter Weak Disciple thou hast zeal but not according to knowledge there is not more danger in this act of thine then inconsideration and ignorance The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Thou drawest thy sword to rescue me from suffering Alas if I suffer not what would become of thee what would become of mankind where were that eternal and just Decree of my Father wherein I am a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Dost thou go about to hinder thine own and the whole world's Redemption Did I not once before call thee Satan for suggesting to me this immunity from my Passion and dost thou now think to favour me with a reall opposition to this great and necessary work Canst thou be so weak as to imagine that this Suffering of mine is not free and voluntary Canst thou be so injurious to me as to think I yield because I want aid to resist Have I not given to thee and to the world many undeniable proofs of my Omnipotence Didst thou not see how easy it had been for me to have blown away these poor forces of my adversaries Dost thou not know that if I would require it all the glorious troups of the Angels of Heaven any one whereof is more then worlds of men would presently shew themselves ready to attend and rescue me Might this have stood with the Justice of my Decree with the Glory of my Mercy wirh the Benefit of Man's Redemption it had been done my Power should have triumphed over the impotent malice of my enemies but now since that eternal Decree must be accomplished my Mercy must be approved mankind must be ransomed and this cannot be done without my Suffering thy well-meant valour is no better then a wrong to thy self to the world to me to my Father O gracious Saviour whilst thou thus smitest thy Disciple thou healest him whom thy Disciple smote Many greater Miracles hadst thou done none that bewraied more mercy and meekness then this last Cure of all other this ear of Malchus hath the loudest tongue to blazon the praise of thy Clemency and Goodness to thy very enemies Wherefore came that man but in an hostile manner to attach thee Besides his own what favour was he worthy of for his Masters sake And if he had not been more forward then his fellows why had not his skin been as whole as theirs Yet even amidst the throng of thine apprehenders in the heat of their violence in the height of their malice and thine own instant peril of death thou healest that unnecessary ear which had been guilty of hearing Blasphemies against thee and receiving cruell and unjust charges concerning thee O Malchus could thy ear be whole and not thy heart broken and contrite with remorse for rising up against so mercifull and so powerfull an hand Couldst thou chuse but say O Blessed Jesu I see it was thy Providence that preserved my head when my ear was smitten it is thine Almighty Power that hath miraculously restored that ear of mine which I had justly forfeited this head of mine shall never be guilty of plotting any farther mischief against thee this ear shall never entertain any more reproaches of thy name this heart of mine shall ever acknowledge and magnifie thy tender mercies thy Divine Omnipotence Could thy fellows see such a demonstration of Power and Goodness with unrelenting hearts Unthankfull Malchus and cruell souldiers ye were worse wounded and felt it not God had struck your breasts with a fearfull obduration that ye still persist in your bloudy enterprise And they that had laid hold on Jesus led him away c. XLVII CHRIST before Caiaphas THat Traitour whom his own cord made soon after too fast gave this charge concerning Jesus Hold him fast Fear makes his guard cruell they bind his hands and think no twist can be strong enough for this Sampson Fond Jews and Souldiers if his own will had not tied him faster then your cords though those Manicles had been the stiffest cables or the strongest iron they had been but threads of tow What eyes can but run over to see those hands that made Heaven and Earth wrung together and bruised with those merciless cords to see him bound who came to restore us to the liberty of the Sons of God to see the Lord of Life contemptuously dragged through the streets first to the house of Annas then from thence to the house of Caiaphas from him to Pilate from Pilate to Herod from Herod back again to Pilate from Pilate to his Calvary whilst in the mean time the base rabble and scum of the incensed multitude runs after him with shouts and scorns The act of death hath not in it so much misery and horrour as the pomp of death And what needed all this pageant of Cruelty wherefore was this state and lingring of an unjust execution Was it for that their malice held a quick dispatch too much Mercy Was it for that whilst they meant to be
bloudy they would fain seem just A sudden violence had been palpably murtherous now the colour of a legall process guilds over all their deadly spight and would seem to render them honest and the accused guilty This attachment this convention of the innocent was a true night-work a deed of so much darkness was not for the light Old Annas and that wicked Bench of gray-headed Scribes and Elders can be content to break their sleep to doe mischief Envy and Malice can make noon of midnight It is resolved he shall die and now pretences must be sought that he may be cleanly murthered All evil begins at the Sanctuary The Priests and Scribes and Elders are the first in this bloudy scene they have pay'd for this head and now long to see what they shall have for their thirty silverlings The Bench is set in the Hall of Caiaphas False witnesses are sought for and hired they agree not but shame their suborners Woe is me what safety can there be for Innocence when the evidence is wilfully corrupted What State was ever so pure as not to yield some miscreants that will either sell or lend an Oath What a brand hath the wisedom of God set upon falshood even dissonance and distraction whereas Truth ever holds together and jars not whilst it is it self O Saviour what a perfect innocence was in thy Life what an exact purity in thy Doctrine that malice it self cannot so much as devise what to slander It were hard if Hell should not find some Factours upon earth At last two Witnesses are brought in that have learned to agree with themselves whilst they differed from truth they say the same though false This fellow said I am able to destroy the Temple of God and build it again in three days Perjured wretches Were these the terms that you heard from that Sacred mouth Said he formally thus as ye have deposed It is true he spake of a Temple of destroying of building of three days but did he speak of that Temple of his own destroying of a material building in that space He said Destroy ye Ye say I am able to destroy He said this Temple of his body Ye say the Temple of God He said I will make up this Temple of my body in three days Ye say I am able in three days to build this material Temple of God The words were his the sentence yours The words were true the evidence false So whilst you report the words and misreport the sense ye swear a true falshood and are truly forsworn Where the resolutions are fixed any colour will serve Had those words been spoken they contained no crime had he been such as they supposed him a meer man the speech had carried a semblance of ostentation no semblance of Blasphemy yet how vehement is Caiaphas for an answer as if those words had already battered that sacred pile or the protestation of his ability had been the highest treason against the God of the Temple That infinite Wisedom knew well how little satisfaction there could be in answers where the sentence was determined Jesus held his peace Where the asker is unworthy the question captious words bootless the best answer is silence Erewhile his just and moderate speech to Annas was returned with a buffet on the cheek now his silence is no less displeasing Caiaphas was not more malicious then crafty what was in vain attempted by witnesses shall be drawn out of Christ's own mouth what an accusation could not effect an adjuration shall I adjure thee by the living God that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God Yea this was the way to screw out a killing answer Caiaphas thy mouth was impure but thy charge is dreadfull Now if Jesus hold his peace he is cried down for a profane disregard of that awfull Name if he answer he is ensnared an affirmation is death a denial worse then death No Caiaphas thou shalt well know it was not fear that all this while stopped that Gracious mouth thou speakest to him that cannot fear those faces he hath made he that hath charged us to confess him cannot but confess himself Jesus saith unto him Thou hast said There is a time to speak and a time to keep silence He that is the Wisedom of his Father hath here given us a pattern of both We may not so speak as to give advantage to cavils we may not be so silent as to betray the Truth Thou shalt have no more cause proud and insulting Caiaphas to complain of a speechless prisoner now thou shalt hear more then thou demandedst Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of Heaven There spake my Saviour the voice of God and not of man Hear now insolent High Priest and be confounded That Son of man whom thou seest is the Son of God whom thou canst not see That Son of man that Son of God that God and man whom thou now seest standing despicably before thy Consistorial seat in a base dejectedness him shalt thou once with horrour and trembling see majestically sitting on the Throne of Heaven attended with thousand thousands of Angels and coming in the clouds to that dreadfull Judgment wherein thy self amongst other damned malefactours shalt be presented before that glorious tribunal of his and adjudged to thy just torments Goe now wretched Hypocrite and rend thy garment whilst in the mean time thou art worthy to have thy Soul rent from thy body for thy spightfull Blasphemy against the Son of God Onwards thy pretence is fair and such as cannot but receive applause from thy compacted crue What need have we of witnesses behold now ye have heard his Blasphemy What think ye And they answered said He is guilty of death What heed is to be taken of mens judgment So light are they upon the balance that one dram of prejudice or forestalment turns the scales Who were these but the grave Benchers of Jerusalem the Synod of the choice Rabbi's of Israel yet these pass sentence against the Lord of Life sentence of that death of his whereby if ever they shall be redeemed from the murther of their sentence O Saviour this is not the last time wherein thou hast received cruel dooms from them that profess Learning and Holiness What wonder is it if thy weak members suffer that which was endured by so perfect an Head What care we to be judged by man's day when thou who art the Righteous Judge of the world wert thus misjudged by men Now is the fury of thy malignant enemies let loose upon thee what measure can be too hard for him that is denounced worthy of death Now those foul mouths defile thy Blessed Face with their impure spittle the venomous froth of their malice now those cruell hands are lifted up to buffet thy Sacred Cheeks now scorn and insultation triumphs over thine humble Patience Prophesy unto us
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
Body that was conceived by the Holy Ghost of the pure substance of an immaculate Virgin Woe is me that which was unspotted with sin is all blemished with humane cruelty and so wofully disfigured that the Blessed Mother that bore thee could not now have known thee so bloudy were thy Temples so swoln and discoloured was thy Face so was the Skin of thy whole body streaked with red and blew stripes so did thy thorny diadem shade thine Heavenly Countenance so did the streams of thy bloud cover and deform all thy Parts The eye of Sense could not distinguish thee O dear Saviour in the nearest proximity to thy Cross the eye of Faith sees thee in all this distance and by how much more ignominy deformity pain it finds in thee so much more it admires the glory of thy mercy Alas is this the Head that is decked by thine eternall Father with a Crown of pure gold of immortall and incomprehensible Majesty which is now bushed with thorns Is this the Eye that saw the Heavens opened and the Holy Ghost descending upon that Head that saw such resplendence of Heavenly brightness on mount Tabor which now begins to be overclouded with death Are these the Ears that heard the voice of thy Father owning thee out of Heaven which now tingle with buffettings and glow with reproaches and bleed with thorns Are these the Lips that spake as never man spake full of grace and power that called out dead Lazarus that ejected the stubbornest Devils that commanded the cure of all diseases which now are swoln with blows and discoloured with blewness and bloud Is this the Face that should be fairer then the sons of men which the Angels of Heaven so desired to see and can never be satisfied with seeing that is thus foul with the nasty mixtures of sweat and bloud and spittings on Are these the Hands that stretched out the Heavens as a curtain that by their touch healed the lame the deaf the blind which are now bleeding with the nails Are these the Feet which walked lately upon the liquid pavement of the sea before whose footstool all the Nations of the earth are bidden to worship that are now so painfully fixed to the Cross O cruell and unthankfull mankind that offered such measure to the Lord of Life O infinitely-mercifull Saviour that wouldst suffer all this for unthankfull mankind That fiends should doe these things to guilty souls it is though terrible yet just but that men should doe thus to the Blessed Son of God it is beyond the capacity of our horrour Even the most hostile dispositions have been onely content to kill Death hath sated the most eager malice thine enemies O Saviour held not themselves satisfied unless they might enjoy thy torment Two Thieves are appointed to be thy companions in death thou art designed to the midst as the chief malefactour on whether hand soever thou lookest thine eye meets with an hatefull partner But O Blessed Jesu how shall I enough admire and celebrate thy infinite Mercy who madest so happy an use of this Jewish despight as to improve it to the occasion of the Salvation of one and the comfort of millions Is not this as the last so the greatest specialty of thy wonderfull compassion to convert that dying Thief with those nailed hands to snatch a Soul out of the mouth of Hell Lord how I bless thee for this work how do I stand amazed at this above all other the demonstrations of thy Goodness and Power The Offender came to die nothing was in his thoughts but his guilt and torment whilst he was yet in his bloud thou saidst This Soul shall live Ere yet the intoxicating Potion could have time to work upon his brain thy Spirit infuses Faith into his heart He that before had nothing in his eye but present death and torture is now lifted up above his Cross in a blessed ambition Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Is this the voice of a Thief or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdom he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Cross at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdom but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactour to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdom it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stoln Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdom thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthiness can bar us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodness when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a Thief to think of thy Kingdom without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their cross alike onely thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the bloud ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine ear was more painfully pierced then thy brows
with a carefull charge renewed unto thy Disciples for the promulgation of thy Gospel with an Heavenly Benediction of all thine acclaiming attendents thou takest leave of earth When he had spoken these things whilst they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight Oh happy parting fit for the Saviour of mankind answerable to that Divine conversation to that succeeding Glory O Blessed Jesu let me so far imitate thee as to depart hence with a blessing in my mouth let my Soul when it is stepping over the threshold of Heaven leave behind it a legacy of Peace and Happiness It was from the mount of Olives that thou tookest thy rise into Heaven Thou mightest have ascended from the valley all the globe of earth was alike to thee but since thou wert to mount upward thou wouldst take so much advantage as that stair of ground would afford thee thou wouldst not use the help of a Miracle in that wherein Nature offered her ordinary service What difficulty had it been for thee to have styed up from the very center of earth But since thou hadst made hills so much nearer unto Heaven thou wouldest not neglect the benefit of thine own Creation Where we have common helps we may not depend upon Supernaturall provisions we may not strain the Divine Providence to the supply of our negligence or the humouring of our presumption Thou that couldst alwaies have walked on the Sea wouldst walk so but once when thou wantedst shipping thou to whom the highest mountains were but valleys wouldst walk up to an hill to ascend thence into Heaven O God teach me to bless thee for means when I have them and to trust thee for means when I have them not yea to trust to thee without means when I have no hope of them What Hill was this thou chosest but the mount of Olives Thy Pulpit shall I call it or thine Oratory The place from whence thou hadst wont to showr down thine Heavenly Doctrine upon the hearers the place whence thou hadst wont to send up thy Prayers unto thy Heavenly Father the place that shared with the Temple for both In the day-time thou wert preaching in the Temple in the night praying in the mount of Olives On this very hill was the bloudy sweat of thine Agony now is it the mount of thy Triumph From this mount of Olives did flow that oyl of gladness wherewith thy Church is everlastingly refreshed That God that uses to punish us in the same kind wherein we have offended retributes also to us in the same kind and circumstances wherein we have been afflicted To us also O Saviour even to us thy unworthy members dost thou seasonably vouchsafe to give a proportionable joy to our heaviness laughter to our mourning glory to contempt and shame Our agonies shall be answered with exaltation Whither then O Blessed Jesu whither didst thou ascend whither but home into thine Heaven From the mountain wert thou taken up and what but Heaven is above the hills Lo these are those mountains of spices which thy Spouse the Church long since desired thee to climbe Thou hast now climbed up that infinite steepness and hast left all sublimity below thee Already hadst thou approved thy self the Lord and commander of Earth of Sea of Hell The Earth confess'd thee her Lord when at thy voice she rendered thee thy Lazarus when she shook at thy Passion and gave up her dead Saints The Sea acknowledged thee in that it became a pavement to thy feet and at thy command to the feet of thy Disciple in that it became thy treasury for thy Tribute-money Hell found and acknowledged thee in that thou conqueredst all the powers of darkness even him that had the power of death the Devil It now onely remained that as the Lord of the Air thou shouldst pass through all the regions of that yielding element and as Lord of Heaven thou shouldst pass through all the glorious contignations thereof that so every knee might bow to thee both in Heaven and in Earth and under the earth Thou hadst an everlasting right to that Heaven that should be an undoubted possession of it ever since it was yea even whilst thou didst cry and spraul in the Cratch whilst thou didst hang upon the Cross whilst thou wert sealed up in thy Grave but thine Humane nature had not taken actuall possession of it till now Like as it was in thy true type David he had right to the Kingdom of Israel immediately upon his anointing but yet many an hard brunt did he pass ere he had the full possession of it in his ascent to Hebron I see now O Blessed Jesu I see where thou art even far above all Heavens at the right hand of thy Father's Glory This is the far country into which the Nobleman went to receive for himself a Kingdom far off to us to thee near yea intrinsecall Oh do thou raise up my Heart thither to thee place thou my Affections upon thee above and teach me therefore to love Heaven because thou art there How then O Blessed Saviour how didst thou ascend Whilst they beheld he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight So wast thou taken up as that the act was thine own the power of the act none but thine Thou that descendedst wast the same that ascendedst as in thy descent there was no use of any power or will but thine own no more was there in thine ascent Still and ever wert thou the Master of thine own acts Thou laidst down thy own life no man took it from thee Thou raisedst up thy self from death no hand did or could help thee Thou carriedst up thine own glorified flesh and placedst it in Heaven The Angels did attend thee they did not aid thee whence had they their strength but from thee Elias ascended to Heaven but he was fetch'd up in a chariot of fire that it might appear hence that man had need of others helps who else could not of himself so much as lift up himself to the Aiery Heaven much less to the Empyreall But thou our Redeemer needest no chariot no carriage of Angels thou art the Authour of life and motion they move in and from thee As thou therefore didst move thy self upward so by the same Divine power thou wilt raise us up to the participation of thy Glory These vile bodies shall be made like to thy glorious body according to the working whereby thou art able to subdue all things unto thy self Elias had but one witness of his rapture into Heaven S. Paul had none no not himself for whether in the body or out of the body he knew not Thou O Blessed Jesu wouldst neither have all eyes witnesses of thine Ascension nor yet too few As after thy Resurrection thou didst not set thy self upon the pinnacle of the Temple nor yet publickly shew thy self within it as making thy presence too cheap but madest choice
many conflicts it was the vale of tears into which thou wert come down So soon as thou wert risen the women saw an Angel in the form of a young man cloathed in white and now so soon as thou art ascended Two men cloathed in white stand by thy Disciples thy task was now done thy victory atchieved and nothing remained but a Crown which was now set upon thy Head Justly therefore were those blessed Angels suited with the robes of light and joy And why should our garments be of any other colour why should oyl be wanting to our heads when the eyes of our Faith see thee thus ascended It is for us O Saviour that thou art gone to prepare a place in those celestiall mansions it is for us that thou sittest at the right hand of Majesty It is a piece of thy Divine Prayer to thy Father that those whom he hath given thee may be with thee To every bleeding Soul thou saiest still as thou didst to Peter Whither I goe thou canst not follow me now but thou shalt follow me hereafter In assured hope of this Glory why do I not rejoyce and beforehand walk in white with thine Angels that at the last I may walk with thee in white Little would the presence of these Angels have availed if they had not been heard as well as seen They stand not silent therefore but directing their speech to the amazed beholders say Ye men of Galilee why stand ye gazing into Heaven What a question was this Could any of those two hundred and forty eyes have power to turn themselves off to any other Object then that Cloud and that point of Heaven where they left their ascended Saviour Surely every one of them were so fixed that had not the speech of these Angels called them off there they had set up their rest till the darkness of night had interposed Pardon me O ye Blessed Angels had I been there with them I should also have been unwilling to have mine eyes pull'd off from that dear prospect and diverted unto you Never could they have gazed so happily as now If but some Great man be advanced to Honour over our heads how apt we are to stand at a gaze and to eye him as some strange meteor Let the Sun but shine a little upon these Dialls how are they look'd at by all passengers Yet alas what can earthly advancement make us other then we are dust and ashes which the higher it is blown the more it is scattered Oh how worthy is the King of Glory to command our eyes now in the highest pitch of his Heavenly exaltation Lord I can never look enough at the place where thou art but what eye could be satisfied with seeing the way that thou wentest It was not the purpose of these Angels to check the long looks of these faithfull Disciples after their ascended Master it was onely a change of Eyes that they intended of Carnall for Spirituall of the eye of Sense for the eye of Faith This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him goe into Heaven Look not after him O ye weak Disciples as so departed that ye shall see him no more if he be gone yet he is not lost those Heavens that received him shall restore him neither can those Blessed mansions decrease his Glory Ye have seen him ascend upon the chariot of a bright Cloud and in the clouds of Heaven ye shall see him descend again to his last Judgment He is gone can it trouble you to know you have an Advocate in Heaven Strive not now so much to exercise your bodily eyes in looking after him as the eyes of your Souls in looking for him Ye cannot O ye Blessed Spirits wish other then well to mankind How happy a diversion of eyes and thoughts is this that you advise If it be our sorrow to part with our Saviour yet to part with him into Heaven it is our comfort and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not Earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whilst I expect thy return THE END Books Printed for or sold by Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head in Chancery-Lane near Fleet-street THE Heroin Musquetier or the Female Warriour in Four Parts Containing many true and delightfull Adventures of a French Lady in the late Campagnes of 1676. and 1677. Sir Patient Fancy a Comedy Acted at the Duke 's Theatre and written by the Authour of the Rover. Friendship in Fashion a Comedy written by Thomas Otway Acted at the Duke 's Theatre Mr. Rimer's Criticisms upon the Plays of Beaumont and Fletcher in a Letter to Fleetwood Sheppard Esq The Art of Making Love or a Guide for Ladies and Gentlemen in the affairs of Love Price 1 s. Pleas of the Crown Written by Sir Matthew Hales late Chief Justice of the Court of King's-Bench An Historical Discourse of Parliaments in their Original before the Conquest and continuance since together with the Original growth and continuance of these Courts following viz. The High Court of Chancery King's-Bench Common Pleas Exchequer Dutchy and other inferiour Courts Price 1 s. Brutus of Alba or the Enchanted Lovers a Tragedy written by N. Tate Acted at the Duke's Theatre The Counterfeits a Comedy Acted at the Duke's Theatre A Treatise of the Principall Grounds of the Law Written by W. Noy late Attorney Generall to King Charles the First Ready for the Press A Treatise of Sublimity Translated out of Longin by H. Watson of the Inner Temple Gent. Matth. 17.14 compared with Mark 9.14 Luk. 4.31 compared with 38. Vide Chap. 10. ver 31 39. For the full explicaâ—ion whereof I refer my Reader to my Passion-Sermon wherein the particularities are largely discussed Gal. 4.9
the style of the Tempter If thou be the Christ The gracious heart is credulous Even where it sees not it believes and where it sees but a little it believes a great deal Neither doth it presume to prescribe unto God what and how he shall work but takes what it finds and unmovably rests in what it takes Any miracle no miracle serves enough for their assent who have built their faith upon the Gospel of the Lord Jesus XVI Matthew called THE number of the Apostles was not yet full one room is left void for a future occupant who can but expect that it is reserved for some eminent person and behold Matthew the Publican is the man O the strange election of Christ Those other Disciples whose calling is recorded were from the Fisher-boat this from the Toll-booth They were unlettered this infamous The condition was not in it self sinfull but as the Taxes which the Romans imposed on God's free people were odious so the Collectours the Farmers of them abominable Besides that it was hard to hold that seat without oppression without exaction One that best knew it branded it with poling and sycophancy and now behold a griping Publican called to the Family to the Apostleship to the Secretaryship of God Who can despair in the conscience of his unworthiness when he sees this pattern of the free bounty of him that calleth us Merits do not carry it in the gracious election of God but his meer favour There sate Matthew the Publican busie in his Counting-house reckoning up the sums of his Rentals taking up his Arrerages and wrangling for denied Duties and did so little think of a Saviour that he did not so much as look at his passage but Jesus as he passed by saw a man sitting at the receit of custome named Matthew As if this prospect had been sudden and casual Jesus saw him in passing by O Saviour before the world was thou sawest that man sitting there thou sawest thine own passage thou sawest his call in thy passage and now thou goest purposely that way that thou mightest see and call Nothing can be hid from that piercing eye one glance whereof hath discerned a Disciple in the cloaths of a Publican That habit that shop of extortion cannot conceal from thee a vessel of election In all forms thou knowest thine own and in thine own time shalt fetch them out of the disguises of their foul sins or unfit conditions What sawest thou O Saviour in that Publican that might either allure thine eye or not offend it what but an hatefull trade an evil eye a gripple hand bloudy tables heaps of spoil Yet now thou saidst Follow me Thou that saidst once to Jerusalem Thy birth and nativity is of the land of Canaan thy father was an Amorite thy mother an Hittite Thy navel was not cut neither wert thou washed in water to supple thee thou wast not salted at all thou wast not swaddled at all None eye pitied thee but thou wast cast out in the open fields to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born And when I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own bloud I said unto thee Live yea I said unto thee when thou wast in thy bloud Live now also when thou passedst by and sawest Matthew sitting at the receit of custome saidst to him Follow me The life of this Publican was so much worse then the birth of that forlorn Amorite as Follow me was more then Live What canst thou see in us O God but ugly deformities horrible sins despicable miseries yet doth it please thy mercy to say unto us both Live and Follow me The just man is the first accuser of himself Whom do we hear to blazon the shame of Matthew but his own mouth Matthew the Evangelist tells us of Matthew the Publican His fellows call him Levi as willing to lay their finger upon the spot of his unpleasing profession himself will not smother nor blanch it a whit but publishes it to all the world in a thankfull recognition of the mercy that called him as liking well that his baseness should serve for a fit foil to set off the glorious lustre of his grace by whom he was elected What matters it how vile we are O God so thy glory may arise in our abasement That word was enough Follow me spoken by the same tongue that said to the corps at Nain Young man I say to thee Arise He that said at first Let there be light says now Follow me That power sweetly inclines which could forcibly command the force is not more unresistible then the inclination When the Sun shines upon the Iceicles can they chuse but melt and fall when it looks into a dungeon can the place chuse but be enlightned Do we see the Jet drawing up straws to it the Load-stone iron and do we marvel if the Omnipotent Saviour by the influence of his grace attract the heart of a Publican He arose and followed him We are all naturally averse from thee O God do thou but bid us follow thee draw us by thy powerfull word and we shall run after thee Alas thou speakest and we sit still thou speakest by thine outward Word to our ear and we stir not Speak thou by the secret and effectual Word of thy Spirit to our heart the World cannot hold us down Satan cannot stop our way we shall arise and follow thee It was not a more busie then gainfull trade that Matthew abandoned to follow Christ into poverty and now he cast away his Counters and struck his Tallies and crossed his Books and contemned his heaps of Cash in comparison of that better Treasure which he foresaw lie open in that happy attendence If any commodity be valued of us too dear to be parted with for Christ we are more fit to be Publicans then Disciples Our Saviour invites Matthew to a Discipleship Matthew invites him to a Feast The joy of his Call makes him begin his abdication of the world in a Banquet Here was not a more chearfull thankfulness in the Inviter then a gracious humility in the Guest The new Servant bids his Master the Publican his Saviour and is honoured with so blessed a presence I do not find where Jesus was ever bidden to any table and refused If a Pharisee if a Publican invited him he made not dainty to go Not for the pleasure of the dishes what was that to him who began his work in a whole Lent of days But as it was his meat and drinks to doe the will of his Father for the benefit of so winning a conversation If he sate with Sinners he converted them if with Converts he confirmed and instructed them if with the Poor he fed them if with the Rich in substance he made them richer in grace At whose board did he ever sit and left not his host a gainer The poor Bridegroom entertains him and hath his water-pots filled with Wine Simon the
desire of the Honour they are apt to undertake the condition The best men may be mistaken in their own powers Alas poor men when it came to the issue they ran away and I know not whither one without his coat It is one thing to suffer in speculation another in practice There cannot be a worse sign then for a man in a carnall presumption to vaunt of his own abilities How justly doth God suffer that man to be foiled purposely that he may be ashamed of his own vain self-confidence O God let me ever be humbly dejected in the sense of mine own insufficiency let me give all the Glory to thee and take nothing to my self but my infirmities Oh the wonderfull mildness of the Son of God! He doth not rate the two Disciples either for their ambition in suing or presumption in undertaking but leaving the worst he takes the best of their answer and omitting their errours incourages their good intentions Ye shall drink indeed of my cup and be baptized with my baptism but to sit on my right hand and my left is not mine to give but to them for whom it is prepared of my Father I know not whether there be more mercy in the concession or satisfaction in the deniall Were it not an high honour to drink of thy Cup O Saviour thou hadst not fore-promised it as a favour I am deceived if what thou grantedst were much less then that which thou deniedst To pledge thee in thine own Cup is not much less dignity and familiarity then to sit by thee If we suffer with thee we shall also reign together with thee What greater promotion can flesh and bloud be capable of then a conformity to the Lord of Glory Enable thou me to drink of thy Cup and then set me where thou wilt But O Saviour whilst thou dignifiest them in thy grant dost thou disparage thy self in thy denial Not mine to give Whose is it if not thine If it be thy Father's it is thine Thou who art Truth hast said I and my Father are one Yea because thou art one with the Father it is not thine to give to any save those for whom it is prepared of the Father The Father's preparation was thine his gift is thine the Decree of both is one That eternal counsel is not alterable upon our vain desires The Father gives these Heavenly honours to none but by thee thou givest them to none but according to the Decree of thy Father Many degrees there are of celestiall Happiness Those supernall mansions are not all of an height That Providence which hath varied our stations upon earth hath pre-ordered our seats above O God admit me within the walls of thy new Jerusalem and place me wheresoever thou pleasest XXXIX The Tribute-money pay'd ALL these other Histories report the Power of Christ this shews both his Power and Obedience his Power over the creature his Obedience to civil powers Capernaum was one of his own Cities there he made his chief abode in Peter's house to that Host of his therefore do the Toll-gatherers repair for the Tribute When that great Disciple said We have left all he did not say We have abandoned all or sold or given away all but we have left in respect of managing not of possession not in respect of right but of use and present fruition so left that upon just occasion we may resume so left that it is our due though not our business Doubtless he was too wise to give away his own that he might borrow of a stranger His own roof gave him shelter for the time and his Master with him Of him as the Housholder is the Tribute required and by and for him is it also pay'd I inquire not either into the occasion or the sum What need we make this exaction sacrilegious as if that half-shekel which was appointed by God to be pay'd by every Israelite to the use of the Tabernacle and Temple were now diverted to the Roman Exchequer There was no necessity that the Roman Lords should be tied to the Jewish reckonings it was free for them to impose what payments they pleased upon a subdued people when great Augustus commanded the world to be taxed this rate was set The mannerly Collectours demand it first of him with whom they might be more bold Doth not your Master pay tribute All Capernaum knew Christ for a great Prophet his Doctrine had ravish'd them his Miracles had astonish'd them yet when it comes to a money-matter his share is as deep as the rest Questions of profit admit no difference Still the sacred Tribe challengeth reverence who cares how little they receive how much they pay Yet no man knows with what mind this demand was made whether in a churlish grudging at Christ's immunity or in an awfull compellation of the servant rather then the Master Peter had it ready what to answer I hear him not require their stay till he should goe in and know his Master's resolution but as one well acquainted with the mind and practice of his Master he answers Yes There was no truer pay-master of the King 's dues then he that was King of Kings Well did Peter know that he did not onely give but preach tribute When the Herodians laid twigs for him as supposing that so great a Prophet would be all for the liberty and exemption of God's chosen people he choaks them with their own coin and told them the stamp argued the right Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's O Saviour how can thy servants challenge that freedom which thy self hadst not who that pretends from thee can claim homage from those to whom thou gavest it If thou by whom Kings reign forbarest not to pay tribute to an heathen Prince what power under thee can deny it to those that rule for thee That demand was made without doors No sooner is Peter come in then he is prevented by his Master's question What thinkest thou Simon of whom do the Kings of the earth receive tribute of their own children or of strangers This very interrogation was answer enough to that which Peter meant to move he that could thus know the heart was not in true right liable to humane exactions But O Saviour may I presume to ask what this is to thee Thou hast said My kingdom is not of this world how doth it concern thee what is done by the Kings of the earth or imposed upon the sons of earthly Kings Thou wouldst be the Son of an humble Virgin and chosest not a Royall state but a servile I dispute not thy natural right to the throne by thy lineal descent from the loins of Juda and David what should I plead that which thou wavest It is thy Divine Royalty and Sonship which thou here justly urgest the argument is irrefragable and convictive If the Kings of the earth do so privilege their children that they are free from all tributes and impositions how much