Serpent then of the Dove There is a time when we must preach Christ on the house-top there is a time when we must speak him in the ear and as it were with our lips shut Secrecy hath no less use then divulgation She said enough The Master is come and calleth for thee What an happy word was this which was here spoken what an high favour is this that is done that the Lord of Life should personally come and call for Mary yet such as is not appropriated to her Thou comest to us still O Saviour if not in thy bodily presence yet in thy spiritual thou callest us still if not in thy personal voice yet in thine Ordinances It is our fault if we doe not as this good woman arise quickly and come to thee Her friends were there about her who came purposely to condole with her her heart was full of heaviness yet so soon as she hears mention of Christ she forgets friends Brother grief cares thoughts and hasts to his presence Still was Jesus standing in the place where Martha left him Whether it be noted to express Mary's speed or his own wise and gracious resolutions his presence in the Village had perhaps invited danger and set off the intended witnesses of the work or it may be to set forth his zealous desire to dispatch the errand he came for that as Abraham's faithfull servant would not receive any courtesie from the house of Bethuel till he had done his Master's business concerning Rebeccah so thou O Saviour wouldst not so much as enter into the house of these two Sisters in Bethany till thou hadst effected this glorious work which occasioned thee thither It was thy meat and drink to doe the will of thy Father thy best entertainment was within thy self How do we follow thee if we suffer either pleasures or profits to take the wall of thy services So good women were well worthy of kind friends No doubt Bethany being not two miles distant from Jerusalem could not but be furnished with good acquaintance from the City these knowing the dearness and hearing of the death of Lazarus came over to comfort the sad Sisters Charity together with the common practice of that Nation calls them to this duty All our distresses expect these good offices from those that love us but of all others Death as that which is the extremest of evils and makes the most fearfull havock in families cities kingdoms worlds The complaint was grievous I look'd for some to comfort me but there was none It is some kind of ease to sorrow to have partners as a burthen is lightned by many shoulders or as clouds scattered into many drops easily vent their moisture into air Yea the very presence of friends abates grief The perill that arises to the heart from Passion is the fixedness of it when like a corrosiving plaister it eats in into the sore Some kind of remedy it is that it may breath out in good society These friendly neighbours seeing Mary hasten forth make haste to follow her Martha went forth before I saw none goe after her Mary stirs they are at her heels Was it for that Martha being the elder Sister and the huswife of the family might stir about with less observation or was it that Mary was the more passionate and needed the more heedy attendence However their care and intentiveness is truely commendable they came to comfort her they doe what they came for It contents them not to sit still and chat within doors but they wait on her at all turns Perturbations of Mind are diseases good keepers do not onely tend the Patient in bed but when he sits up when he tries to walk all his motions have their carefull assistence We are no true friends if our endeavours of the redress of distempers in them we love be not assiduous and unweariable It was but a loving suspicion She is gone to the grave to weep there They well knew how apt passionate minds are to take all occasions to renew their sorrow every Object affects them When she saw but the Chamber of her dead Brother straight she thinks There was Lazarus wont to lie and then she wept afresh when the Table There Lazarus was wont to sit and then new tears arise when the Garden There Lazarus had wont to walk and now again she weeps How much more do these friends suppose the Passions would be stirred with the sight of the Grave when she must needs think There is Lazarus O Saviour if the place of the very dead corps of our friend have power to draw our hearts thither and to affect us more deeply how should our hearts be drawn to and affected with Heaven where thou sittest at the right hand of thy Father There O thou which wert dead and art alive is thy Body and thy Soul present and united to thy glorious Deity Thither O thither let our access be not to mourn there where is no place for sorrow but to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious and more and more to long for that thy beatificall presence Their indulgent love mistook Mary's errand their thoughts how kind soever were much too low whilst they supposed she went to a dead Brother she went to a living Saviour The world hath other conceits of the actions and carriage of the regenerate then are truly intended setting such constructions upon them as their own carnall reason suggests they think them dying when behold they live sorrowfull when they are alwaies rejoycing poor whilst they make many rich How justly do we appeal from them as incompetent Judges and pity those mis-interpretations which we cannot avoid Both the Sisters met Christ not both in one posture Mary is still noted as for more Passion so for more Devotion she that before sate at the feet of Jesus now falls at his feet That presence had wont to be familiar to her and not without some outward homeliness now it fetches her upon her knees in an awfull veneration whether out of a reverent acknowledgment of the secret excellency and power of Christ or out of a dumb intimation of that suit concerning her dead Brother which she was afraid to utter The very gesture it self was supplicatory What position of body can be so fit for us when we make our address to our Saviour It is an irreligious unmannerliness for us to goe less Where the heart is affected with an awfull acknowledgment of Majesty the body cannot but bow Even before all her neighbours of Jerusalem doth Mary thus fall down at the feet of Jesus so many witnesses as she had so many spies she had of that forbidden observance It was no less then Excommunication for any body to confess him yet good Mary not fearing the informations that might be given by those Jewish Gossips adores him and in her silent gesture says as much as her Sister had spoken before Thou art the Christ the Son of God Those that would give Christ
Pharisee entertains him and hath his table honoured with the publick remission of a penitent sinner with the heavenly doctrine of remission Zacchaeus entertains him salvation came that day to his house with the Authour of it That presence made the Publican a son of Abraham Matthew is recompensed for his feast with an Apostleship Martha and Mary entertain him and besides Divine instruction receive their brother from the dead O Saviour whether thou feast us or we feast thee in both of them is blessedness Where a Publican is the feast-Feast-master it is no marvel if the guests be Publicans and Sinners Whether they came alone out of the hope of that mercy which they saw their fellow had found or whether Matthew invited them to be partners of that plentifull grace whereof he had tasted I inquire not Publicans and Sinners will flock together the one hatefull for their trade the other for their vicious life Common contempt hath wrought them to an unanimity and sends them to seek mutual comfort in that society which all others held loathsome and contagious Moderate correction humbleth and shameth the offender whereas a cruel severity makes men desperate and drives them to those courses whereby they are more dangerously infected How many have gone into the prison faulty and returned flagitious If Publicans were not Sinners they were no whit beholden to their neighbours What a table-full was here The Son of God beset with Publicans and Sinners O happy Publicans and Sinners that had found out their Saviour O mercifull Saviour that disdained not Publicans and Sinners What sinner can fear to kneel before thee when he sees Publicans and Sinners sit with thee Who can fear to be despised of thy meekness and mercy which didst not abhor to converse with the outcasts of men Thou didst not despise the Thief confessing upon the Cross nor the Sinner weeping upon thy feet nor the Canaanite crying to thee in the way nor the blushing Adulteress nor the odious Publican nor the forswearing Disciple nor the persecutour of Disciples nor thine own Executioners How can we be unwelcome to thee if we come with tears in our eyes faith in our hearts restitution in our hands O Saviour our breasts are too oft shut upon thee thy bosome is ever open to us We are as great sinners as the consorts of these Publicans why should we despair of a room at thy Table The squint-eyed Pharisees look a-cross at all the actions of Christ where they should have admired his mercy they cavil at his holiness They said to his Disciples Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners They durst not say thus to the Master whose answer they knew would soon have convinced them This wind they hoped might shake the weak faith of the Disciples They speak where they may be most likely to hurt All the crue of Satanical instruments have learnt this craft of their old Tutour in Paradise We cannot reverence that man whom we think unholy Christ had lost the hearts of his followers if they had entertained the least suspicion of his impurity which the murmur of these envious Pharisees would fain insinuate He cannot be worthy to be followed that is unclean He cannot but be unclean that eateth with Publicans and Sinners Proud and foolish Pharisees Ye fast whilst Christ eateth ye fast in your houses whilst Christ eateth in other mens ye fast with your own whilst Christ feasts with sinners But if ye fast in pride whilst Christ eats in humility if ye fast at home for merit or popularity whilst Christ feasts with sinners for compassion for edification for conversion your fast is unclean his feast is holy ye shall have your portion with hypocrites when those Publicans and Sinners shall be glorious When these censurers thought the Disciples had offended they speak not to them but to their Master Why doe thy Disciples that which is not lawfull now when they thought Christ offended they speak not to him but to the Disciples Thus like true make-bates they go about to make a breach in the family of Christ by setting off the one from the other The quick eye of our Saviour hath soon espied the pack of their fraud and therefore he takes the words out of the mouths of his Disciples into his own They had spoke of Christ to the Disciples Christ answers for the Disciples concerning himself The whole need not the Physician but the sick According to the two qualities of pride scorn and over-weening these insolent Pharisees over-rated their own holiness contemned the noted unholiness of others as if themselves were not tainted with secret sins as if others could not be cleansed by repentance The searcher of hearts meets with their arrogance and finds those Justiciaries sinfull those Sinners just The spiritual Physician finds the sickness of those Sinners wholsome the health of those Pharisees desperate that wholsome because it calls for the help of the Physician this desperate because it needs not Every soul is sick those most that feel it not Those that feel it complain those that complain have cure those that feel it not shall find themselves dying ere they can with to recover O blessed Physician by whose stripes we are healed by whose death we live happy are they that are under thy hands sick as of sin so of sorrow for sin It is as unpossible they should die as it is unpossible for thee to want either skill or power or mercy Sin hath made us sick unto death make thou us but as sick of our sins we are as safe as thou art gracious XVII Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd I Do not any-where find so furious a Demoniack as amongst the Gergesens Satan is most tyrannous where he is obeyed most Christ no sooner sailed over the lake then he was met by two possessed Gadarenes The extreme rage of the one hath drowned the mention of the other Yet in the midst of all that cruelty of the evil Spirit there was sometimes a remission if not an intermission of vexation If oft-times Satan caught him then sometimes in the same violence he caught him not It was no thank to that malignant one who as he was indefatigable in his executions so unmeasurable in his malice but to the mercifull over-ruling of God who in a gracious respect to the weakness of his poor creatures limits the spightfull attempts of that immortal Enemy and takes off this Mastive whilst we may take breath He who in his justice gives way to some onsets of Satan in his mercy restrains them so regarding our deservings that withall he regards our strength If way should be given to that malicious spirit we could not subsist no violent thing can endure and if Satan might have his will we should no moment be free He can be no more weary of doing evil to us then God is of doing good Are we therefore preserved from the malignity of these powers of darkness Blessed
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
acknowledges a virtue inherent in her It was his virtue that cured her yet he graciously casts this work upon her Faith Not that her Faith did it by way of merit by way of efficiency but by way of impetration So much did our Saviour regard that Faith which he had wrought in her that he will honour it with the success of her Cure Such and the same is still the remedy of our spiritual diseases our sins By faith we are justified by faith we are saved Thou onely O Saviour canst heal us thou wilt not heal us but by our Faith not as it issues from us but as it appropriates thee The sickness is ours the remedy is ours the sickness is our own by nature the remedy ours by thy grace both working and accepting it Our Faith is no less from thee then thy Cure is from our Faith O happy dismission Go in peace How unquiet had this poor Soul formerly been She had no outward peace with her Neighbours they shunned and abhorred her presence in this condition yea they must doe so She had no peace in Body that was pained and vexed with so long and foul a disease Much less had she peace in her Mind which was grievously disquieted with sorrow for her sickness with anger and discontentment at her torturing Physicians with fear of the continuance of so bad a guest Her Soul for the present had no peace from the sense of her guiltiness in the carriage of this business from the conceived displeasure of him to whom she came for comfort and redress At once now doth our Saviour calm all these storms and in one word and act restores to her peace with her Neighbours peace in her Self peace in Body in Mind in Soul Goe in peace Even so Lord it was for thee onely who art the Prince of Peace to bestow thy peace where thou pleasest Our body mind Soul estate is thine whether to afflict or ease It is a wonder if all of us do not ail somewhat In vain shall we speak peace to our selves in vain shall the world speak peace to us except thou say to us as thou didst to this distressed soul Goe in peace XXV Jairus and his Daughter HOW troublesome did the people's importunity seem to Jairus That great man came to sue unto Jesus for his dying Daughter the throng of the multitude intercepted him Every man is most sensible of his own necessity It is no straining courtesy in the challenge of our interest in Christ there is no unmannerliness in our strife for the greatest share in his presence and benediction That onely Child of this Ruler lay a dying when he came to solicit Christ's aid and was dead whilst he solicited it There was hope in her sickness in her extremity there was fear in her death despair and impossibility as they thought of help Thy daughter is dead trouble not the Master When we have to doe with a mere finite power this word were but just He was a Prophet no less then a King that said Whilst the child was yet alive I fasted and wept for I said Who can tell whether God will be gracious to me that the child may live But now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall goe to him but he shall not return to me But since thou hast to doe with an omnipotent agent know now O thou faithless messenger that death can be no bar to his power How well would it have become thee to have said Thy daughter is dead but who can tell whether thy God and Saviour will not be gracious to thee that the child may revive Cannot he in whose hands are the issues of death bring her back again Here were more Manners then Faith Trouble not the Master Infidelity is all for ease and thinks every good work tedious That which Nature accounts troublesome is pleasing and delightfull to Grace Is it any pain for an hungry man to eat O Saviour it was thy meat and drink to doe thy Father's will and his will was that thou shouldst bear our griefs and take away our sorrows It cannot be thy trouble which is our happiness that we may still sue to thee The messenger could not so whisper his ill news but Jesus heard it Jairus hears that he feared and was now heartless with so sad tidings He that resolved not to trouble the Master meant to take so much more trouble to himself and would now yield to a hopeless sorrow He whose work it is to comfort the afflicted rouzeth up the dejected heart of that pensive father Fear not believe onely and she shall be made whole The word was not more chearfull then difficult Fear not Who can be insensible of so great an evil Where death hath once seized who can but doubt he will keep his hold No less hard was it not to grieve for the loss of an onely Child then not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief In a perfect Faith there is no Fear by how much more we fear by so much less we believe Well are these two then coupled Fear not believe onely O Saviour if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond Nature it were no thank to us to obey thee While the Child was alive to believe that it might recover it was no hard task but now that she was fully dead to believe she should live again was a work not easy for Jairus to apprehend though easy for thee to effect yet must that be believed else there is no capacity of so great a Mercy As Love so Faith is stronger then death making those bonds no other then as Sampson did his withes like threds of tow How much natural impossibility is there in the return of these Bodies from the dust of their Earth into which through many degrees of corruption they are at the last mouldred Fear not O my Soul believe onely it must it shall be done The sum of Jairus his first suit was for the Health not for the Resuscitation of his Daughter now that she was dead he would if he durst have been glad to have asked her Life And now behold our Saviour bids him expect both her Life and her Health Thy daughter shall be made whole alive from her death whole from her disease Thou didst not O Jairus thou daredst not ask so much as thou receivest How glad wouldst thou have been since this last news to have had thy Daughter alive though weak and sickly Now thou shalt receive her not living onely but sound and vigorous Thou dost not O Saviour measure thy gifts by our petitions but by our wants and thine own mercies This work might have been as easily done by an absent command the Power of Christ was there whilst himself was away but he will go personally to the place that he might be confessed the Authour of so great a Miracle O Saviour thou lovest to go to the house of
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