and gives glory where she would have relief Who now can expect other then a fair and yielding answer to so humble so faithfull so patient a suppliant What can speed well if a prayer of faith from the knees of humility succeed not And yet behold the farther she goes the worse she fares her discouragement is doubled with her suit It is not good to take the childrens bread and to cast it to dogs First his silence implied a contempt then his answer defended his silence now his speech expresses and defends his contempt Lo he hath turned her from a woman to a dog and as it were spurns her from his feet with an harsh repulse What shall we say is the Lamb of God turned Lion doth that clear fountain of mercy run bloud O Saviour did ever so hard a word fall from those mild lips Thou calledst Herod Fox most worthily he was crafty and wicked the Scribes and Pharisees a generation of vipers they were venomous and cruel Judas a Devil he was both covetous and treacherous But here was a Woman in distress and distress challenges mercy a good woman a faithfull suppliant a Canaanitish disciple a Christian Canaanite yet rated and whipt out for a dog by thee who wert all goodness and mercy How different are thy ways from ours Even thy severity argues favour The trial had not been so sharp if thou hadst not found the faith so strong if thou hadst not meant the issue so happy Thou hadst not driven her away as a Dog if thou hadst not intended to admit her for a Saint and to advance her so much for a pattern of Faith as thou depressedst her for a spectacle of contempt The time was when the Jews were Children and the Gentiles Dogs now the case is happily altered the Jews are the Dogs so their dear and Divine countryman calls the Concision we Gentiles are the Children What certainty is there in an external profession that gives us onely to seem not to be at least the being that it gives is doubtfull and temporary we may be Children to day and Dogs to morrow The true assurance of our condition is in the Decree and Covenant of God on his part in our Faith and Obedience on ours How they of Children became Dogs it is not hard to say their presumption their unbelief transformed them and to perfect their brutishness they set their fangs upon the Lord of life How we of Dogs become Children I know no reason but Oh the depth That which at the first singled them out from the nations of the world hath at last singled us out from the world and them It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that hath mercy Lord how should we bless thy goodness that we of Dogs are Children how should we fear thy justice since they of Children are Dogs O let not us be high-minded but tremble If they were cut off who crucified thee in thine humbled estate what may we expect who crucifie thee daily in thy glory Now what ordinary patience would not have been overstrained with so contemptuous a repulse How few but would have faln into intemperate passions into passionate expostulations Art thou the Prophet of God that so disdainfully entertainest poor suppliants Is this the comfort that thou dealest to the distressed Is this the fruit of my humble adoration of my faithfull profession Did I snarl or bark at thee when I called thee the Son of David Did I fly upon thee otherwise then with my prayers and tears And if this term were fit for my vileness yet doth it become thy lips Is it not sorrow enough to me that I am afflicted with my Daughter's misery but that thou of whom I hoped for relief must adde to mine affliction in an unkind reproach But here is none of all this Contrarily her humility grants all her patience overcomes all and she meekly answers Truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crums which fall from their master's table The reply is not more witty then faithfull O Lord thou art Truth it self thy words can be no other then truth thou hast call'd me a Dog and a Dog I am give me therefore the favour and privilege of a Dog that I may gather up some crums of mercy from under that table whereat thy Children sit This blessing though great to me yet to the infiniteness of thy power and mercy is but as a crum to a feast I presume not to press to the board but to creep under it deny me not those small offalls which else would be swept away in the dust After this stripe give me but a crum and I shall fawn upon thee and depart satisfied O woman say I great is thine humility great is thy patience but O woman saith my Saviour great is thy faith He sees the root we the stock Nothing but Faith could thus temper the heart thus strengthen the soul thus charm the tongue O precious Faith O acceptable Perseverance It is no marvell if that chiding end in favour Be it to thee even as thou wilt Never did such grace go away uncrowned The beneficence had been streight if thou hadst not carried away more then thou suedst for Lo thou that camest a Dog goest away a Child thou that wouldst but creep under the Childrens feet art set at their elbow thou that wouldst have taken up with a crum art feasted with full dishes The way to speed well at God's hand is to be humbled in his eyes and in our own It is quite otherwise with God and with men With men we are so accounted of as we account of our selves he shall be sure to be vile in the sight of others which is vile in his own With God nothing is got by vain ostentation nothing is lost by abasement O God when we look down to our own weakness and cast up our eyes to thine infiniteness thine omnipotence what poor things we are but when we look down upon our sins and wickedness how shall we express our shame None of all thy creatures except Devils are capable of so foul a quality As we have thus made our selves worse then beasts so let us in a sincere humbleness of mind acknowledge it to thee who canst pity forgive redress it So setting our selves down at the lower end of the table of thy creatures thou the great Master of the Feast maist be pleased to advance us to the height of glory XIX The Deaf and Dumb man cured OUR Saviour's entrance into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon was not without a Miracle neither was his regress as the Sun neither rises nor sets without light In his entrance he delivers the Daughter of the faithfull Syrophoenician in his egress he cures the Deaf and Dumb. He can no more want work then that work can want success Whether the Patient were naturally deaf and perfectly dumb or imperfectly dumb and accidentally deaf I labour not Sure I am that
their eagerness might justly draw upon them an insuing shame The more unwillingness they saw in Christ to give his answer the more pressive and importunate they were to draw it from him Now as forced by their so zealous irritation our Saviour rouzeth up himself and gives it them home with a reprehensory and stinging satisfaction He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her As if his very action had said I was loth to have shamed you and therefore could have been willing not to have heard your ill-meant motion but since you will needs have it and by your vehemence force my justice I must tell you there is not one of you but is as faulty as she whom ye accuse there is no difference but that your sin is smothered in secrecy hers is brought forth into the light Ye had more need to make your own peace by an humble repentance then to urge severity against another I deny not but Moses hath justly from God imposed the penalty of death upon such hainous offences but what then would become of you If death be her due yet not by those your unclean hands your hearts know you are not honest enough to accuse Lo not the bird but the fouler is taken He says not Let her be stoned this had been against the course of his Mercy he says not Let her not be stoned this had been against the Law of Moses Now he so answers that both his Justice and Mercy are entire she dismissed they shamed It was the manner of the Jews in those hainous crimes that were punished with Lapidation that the witnesses and accusers should be the first that should lay hands upon the guilty well doth our Saviour therefore choak these accusers with the conscience of their so foul incompetency With what face with what heart could they stone their own sin in another person Honesty is too mean a term These Scribes and Pharisees were noted for extraordinary and admired Holiness the outside of their lives was not onely inoffensive but Saint-like and exemplary Yet that all-seeing eye of the Son of God which found folly in the Angels hath much more found wickedness in these glorious Professours It is not for nothing that his eyes are like a flame of fire What secret is there which he searches not Retire your selves O ye foolish sinners into your inmost closets yea if ye can into the center of the earth his eye follows you and observes all your carriages no bolt no bar no darkness can keep him out No thief was ever so impudent as to steal in the very face of the Judge O God let me see my self seen by thee and I shall not dare to offend Besides notice here is exprobration These mens sins as they had been secret so they were forgotten It is long since they were done neither did they think to have heard any more news of them And now when time and security had quite worn them out of thought he that shall once be their Judge calls them to a back-reckoning One time or other shall that just God lay our sins in our dish and make us possess the sins of our youth These things thou didst and I kept silence and thou thoughtest I was like unto thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thee The penitent man's sin lies before him for his humiliation the impenitent's for his shame and confusion The act of sin is transient not so the guilt that will stick by us and return upon us either in the height of our security or the depth of our misery when we shall be least able to bear it How just may it be with God to take us at advantages and then to lay his arrest upon us when we are laid up upon a former suit It is but just there should be a requisition of innocence in them that prosecute the vices of others The offender is worthy of stoning but who shall cast them How ill would they become hands as guilty as her own What doe they but smite themselves who punish their own offences in other men Nothing is more unjust or absurd then for the beam to censure the moat the oven to upbraid the kiln It is a false and vagrant zeal that begins not first at home Well did our Saviour know how bitter and strong a pill he had given to these false Justiciaries and now he will take leisure to see how it wrought whilst therefore he gives time to them to swallow it and put it over he returns to his old gesture of a seeming inadvertency How sped the receit I do not see any one of them stand out with Christ and plead his own innocency and yet these men which is very remarkable placed the fulfilling or violation of the Law onely in the outward act Their hearts misgave them that if they should have stood out in contestation with Christ he would have utterly shamed them by displaying their old and secret sins and have so convinced them by undeniable circumstances that they should never have clawed off the reproach And therefore when they heard it being convicted by their own conscience they went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last There might seem to be some kind of mannerly order in this guilty departure Not all at once lest they should seem violently chased away by this charge of Christ now their slinking away one by one may seem to carry a shew of a deliberate and voluntary discession The eldest first The ancienter is fitter to give then take example and the younger could think it no shame to follow the steps of a grave fore-man O wonderfull power of conscience Man can no more stand out against it then it can stand out against God The Almighty whose substitute is set in our bosome sets it on work to accuse It is no denying when that says we are guilty when that condemns us in vain are we acquitted by the world With what bravery did these Hypocrites come to set upon Christ with what triumph did they insult upon that guilty Soul Now they are thunder-struck with their own Conscience and drop away confounded and well is he that can run away farthest from his own shame No wicked man needs to seek out of himself for a Judge Accuser Witness Tormentour No sooner do these Hypocrites hear of their sins from the mouth of Christ then they are gone Had they been sincerely touched with a true remorse they would have rather come to him upon their knees and have said Lord we know and find that thou knowest our secret sins this argues thy Divine Omniscience Thou that art able to know our sins art able to remit them O pardon the iniquities of thy servants Thou that accusest us do thou also acquit us But now in stead hereof they turn their back upon their Saviour and haste away An impenitent man cares not how little he hath
Women the first witnesses of the Resurrection as also of the two Disciples walking to Emmaus whose hearts burning within them had set their tongues on fire in a zealous relation of those happy occurrences with the assured reports of the rising and re-appearance of many Saints in attendence of the Lord and giver of life yet still he struggles with his own distrust and stiffly suspends his belief to that truth whereof he cannot deny himself enough convinced As all bodies are not equally apt to be wrought upon by the same Medicine so are not all Souls by the same means of Faith one is refractory whilst others are pliable O Saviour how justly mightest thou have left this man to his own pertinacy whom could he have thank'd if he had perished in his unbelief But O thou good Shepherd of Israel that couldst be content to leave the ninety and nine to go fetch one stray in the wilderness how carefull wert thou to reduce this straggler to his fellows Right so were thy Disciples re-assembled such was the season the place the same so were the doors shut up when that unbelieving Disciple being now present with the rest thou so camest in so stoodst in the midst so shewedst thy hands and feet and singling out thy incredulous client invitest his eyes to see and his fingers to handle thine hands and his hand to be thrust into thy side that he might not be faithless but faithfull Blessed Jesu how thou pitiest the errours and infirmities of thy servants Even when we are froward in our misconceits and worthy of nothing but desertion how thou followest us and overtakest us with mercy and in thine abundant compassion wilt reclaim and save us when either we meant not or would not By how much more unworthy those eyes and hands were to see and touch that immortall and glorious Body by so much more wonderfull was thy Goodness in condescending to satisfy that curious Infidelity Neither do I hear thee so much as to chide that weak obstinacy It was not long since thou didst sharply take up the two Disciples that walk'd to Emmaus O fools and slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have spoken but this was under the disguise of an unknown traveller upon the way when they were alone Now thou speakest with thine own tongue before all thy Disciples in stead of rebuking thou onely exhortest Be not faithless but faithfull Behold thy Mercy no less then thy Power hath melted the congealed heart of thy unbelieving follower Then Thomas answered and said unto him My Lord and my God I do not hear that when it came to the issue Thomas imployed his hands in this triall his eyes were now sufficient assurance the sense of his Master's Omniscience in this particular challenge of him spared perhaps the labour of a farther disquisition And now how happily was that doubt bestowed which brought forth so faithfull a confession My Lord my God I hear not such a word from those that believed It was well for us it was well for thee O Thomas that thou distrustedst else neither had the world received so perfect an evidence of that Resurrection whereon all our Salvation dependeth neither hadst thou yielded so pregnant and divine an astipulation to thy Blessed Saviour Now thou dost not onely profess his Resurrection but his Godhead too and thy happy interest in both And now if they be blessed that have not seen and yet believed blessed art thou also who having seen hast thus believed and blessed be thou O God who knowest how to make advantage of the infirmities of thy chosen for the promoting of their Salvation the confirmation of thy Church the glory of thine own Name Amen LI. The Ascension IT stood not with thy purpose O Saviour to ascend immediately from thy grave into Heaven thou meantest to take the earth in thy way not for a sudden passage but for a leisurely conversation Upon thine Easter-day thou spakest of thine Ascension but thou wouldst have forty days interposed Hadst thou meerly respected thine own Glory thou hadst instantly changed thy grave for thy Paradise for so much the sooner hadst thou been possessed of thy Father's joy we would not continue in a Dungeon when we might be in a Palace but thou who for our sakes vouchsafedst to descend from Heaven to earth wouldst now in the upshot have a gracious regard to us in thy return Thy Death had troubled the hearts of many Disciples who thought that condition too mean to be compatible with the glory of the Messiah and thoughts of diffidence were apt to seize upon the holiest breasts So long therefore wouldst thou hold footing upon earth till the world were fully convinced of the infallible evidences of thy Resurrection of all which time thou onely canst give an account it was not for flesh and bloud to trace the ways of Immortality neither was our frail corruptible sinfull nature a meet companion for thy now-glorified Humanity the glorious Angels of Heaven were now thy fittest attendents But yet how oft did it please thee graciously to impart thy self this while unto men and not onely to appear unto thy Disciples but to renew unto them the familiar forms of thy wonted conversation in conferring walking eating with them And now when thou drewest near to thy last parting thou who hadst many times shewed thy self before to thy severall Disciples thoughtest meet to assemble them all together for an universall valediction Who can be too rigorous in censuring the ignorances of well-meaning Christians when he sees the domestick Followers of Christ even after his Resurrection mistake the main End of his coming in the flesh Lord wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel They saw their Master now out of the reach of all Jewish envy they saw his power illimited and irresistible they saw him stay so long upon earth that they might imagine he meant to fix his abode there and what should he doe there but reign and wherefore should they be now assembled but for the choice and distribution of Offices and for the ordering of the affairs of that state which was now to be vindicated Oh weak thoughts of well-instructed Disciples What should an Heavenly body doe in an earthly throne How should a spirituall life be imployed in secular cares How poor a business is the Temporall Kingdom of Israel for the King of Heaven And even yet O Blessed Saviour I do not hear thee sharply controll this erroneous conceit of thy mistaken Followers thy mild correction insists rather upon the time then the misconceived substance of that restauration It was thy gracious purpose that thy Spirit should by degrees rectify their judgments and illuminate them with thy Divine truths in the mean time it was sufficient to raise up their hearts to an expectation of that Holy Ghost which should shortly lead them into all needfull and requisite verities And now with a gracious promise of that Spirit of thine
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
This piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Jesus the Son of the Most high God the other piece like a Devil What have I to doe with thee If the disclamation were universal the latter words would impugn the former for whilst he confesses Jesus to be the Son of the Most high God he withall confesses his own inevitable subjection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot he dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What have I to doe with thee Others indeed I have vexed thee I fear in respect then of any violence of any personal provocation What have I to doe with thee And dost thou ask O thou evil Spirit what hast thou to doe with Christ whilst thou vexest a Servant of Christ Hast thou thy name from Knowledge and yet so mistakest him whom thou confessest as if nothing could be done to him but what immediately concerns his own person Hear that great and just Judge sentencing upon his dreadfull Tribunal Inasmuch as thou didst it unto one of these little ones thou didst it unto me It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the Members from the Head He that had humility enough to kneel to the Son of God hath boldness enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment us before our time Whether it were that Satan who useth to enjoy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to hear our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to be restrained in the exercise of his tyranny Or whether the very presence of Christ were his rack For the guilty spirit projecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Judge or the executioner without a renovation of horrour Or whether that as himself professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded down into the deep for a farther degree of actual torment which he thus deprecates There are Tortures appointed to the very spiritual natures of evil Angels Men that are led by sense have easily granted the Body subject to torment who yet have not so readily conceived this incident to a Spiritual substance The Holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint us with the particular manner of these invisible acts rather willing that we should herein fear then enquire but as all matters of faith though they cannot be proved by reason for that they are in a higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of all reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it self so this of the sufferings of Spirits There is therefore both an intentional torment incident to Spirits and a real For as in Blessedness the good Spirits find themselves joyned unto the chief good and hereupon feel a perfect love of God and unspeakable joy in him and rest in themselves so contrarily the evil Spirits perceive themselves eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselves settled in a wofull darkness and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceived How many men have we known to torment themselves with their own thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their own heart And if some pains begin at the Body and from thence afflict the Soul in a copartnership of grief yet others arise immediately from the Soul and draw the Body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceive meer and separate Spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I hear the Judge of men and Angels say Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I hear the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with fear and without curiosity we may look upon those flames why may we not attribute a spiritual nature to that more then natural fire In the end of the world the elements shall be dissolved by fire and if the pure quintessential matter of the sky and the element of fire it self shall be dissolved by fire then that last fire shall be of another nature then that which it consumeth What hinders then but that the Omnipotent God hath from eternity created a fire of another nature proportionable even to spiritual essences Or why may we not distinguish of fire as it is it self a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of God's justice so working not by any material virtue or power of its own but by a certain height of supernatural efficacy to which it is exalted by the Omnipotence of that Supreme and Righteous Judge Or lastly why may we not conceive that though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon yet by the judgment of the Almighty Arbiter of the world justly willing their torment they may be made most sensible of pain and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined For if the incorporeal spirits of living men may be held in a loathed or painfull body and conceive sorrow to be so imprisoned why may we not as easily yield that the evil spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhor therein to continue for ever Tremble rather O my soul at the thought of this wofull condition of the evil Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Majesty of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy severity of justice to the revolted Angels so graciously forbears our hainous iniquities and both suffers us to be free for the time from these hellish torments and gives us opportunity of a perfect freedome from them for ever Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name Who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thine infirmities who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the evil Spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they expect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment us before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed term of their full execution which they also understood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Judgment should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of heaven yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say before the time Even the very evil spirits confess and fearfully attend a set day of universal Sessions They believe less then Devils that either doubt of or deny that Day of final retribution O the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men
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
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
as if they had the charge of their Bellies not of their Souls if they have open Cellars it matters not whether their Mouths be open If they be sociable in their carriage favourable and indulgent to their recreations full in their chear how easily doth the world dispense with either their negligence or enormities As if the Souls of these men lay in their weasand in their gut But surely they have reason to expect from their Teachers a due proportion of Hospitality An unmeet parsimony is here not more odious then it is sinfull And where ability wants yet care may not be wanting Those Preachers which are so intent upon their spiritual work that in the mean time they over-strain the weaknesses of their people holding them in their Devotions longer then humane frailty will permit forget not themselves more then their pattern and must be sent to school to these compassionate Disciples who when evening was come sue to Christ for the people's dismission The place was desart the time evening Doubtless our Saviour made choice of both these that there might be both more use and more note of his Miracle Had it been in the morning their stomack had not been up their feeding had been unnecessary Had it been in the Village provision either might have been made or at least would have seemed made by themselves But now that it was both desart and evening there was good ground for the Disciples to move and for Christ to work their sustentation Then onely may we expect and crave help from God when we find our need Superfluous aid can neither be heartily desired nor earnestly lookt for nor thankfully received from the hands of mercy Cast thy burthen upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee If it be not a burthen it is no casting it upon God Hence it is that Divine aid comes ever in the very upshot and exigence of our trialls when we have been exercised and almost tired with long hopes yea with despairs of success that it may be both more longed for ere it come and when it comes more welcome Oh the Faith and Zeal of these clients of Christ They not onely follow him from the City into the Desart from delicacy to want from frequence to solitude but forget their Bodies in pursuit of the food of their Souls Nothing is more hard for an healthfull man to forget then his belly within few hours this will be sure to solicit him and will take no denials Yet such sweetness did these hearers find in the spiritual repast that they thought not on the bodily the Disciples pitied them they had no mercy on themselves By how much more a man's mind is taken up with Heavenly things so much less shall he care for earthly What shall Earth be to us when we are all Spirit And in the mean time according to the degrees of our intellectual elevations shall be our neglect of bodily contentments The Disciples think they move well Send them away that they may buy victuals Here was a strong Charity but a weak Faith A strong Charity in that they would have the people relieved a weak Faith in that they supposed they could not otherwise be so well relieved As a man when he sees many ways lie before him takes that which he thinks both fairest and nearest so do they this way of relief lay openest to their view and promised most Well might they have thought It is as easie for our Master to feed them as to heal them there is an equal facility in all things to a supernatural power yet they say Send them away In all our projects and suits we are still ready to move for that which is most obvious most likely when sometimes that is less agreeable to the will of God The All-wise and Almighty Arbiter of all things hath a thousand secret means to honour himself in his proceedings with us It is not for us to carve boldly for our selves but we must humbly depend on the disposal of his Wisedom and Mercy Our Saviour's answer gives a strange check to their motion They need not depart Not need They had no victuals they must have there was none to be had What more need could be He knew the supply which he intended though they knew it not His command was therefore more strange then his assertion Give ye them to eat Nothing gives what it hath not Had they had victuals they had not called for a dismission and not having how should they give It was thy wisedom O Saviour thus to prepare thy Disciples for the intended Miracle Thou wouldst not doe it abruptly without an intimation both of the purpose of it and the necessity And how modestly dost thou undertake it without noise without ostentation I hear thee not say I will give them to eat no but Give ye as if it should be their act not thine Thus sometimes it pleaseth thee to require of us what we are not able to perform either that thou mayest shew us what we cannot doe and so humble us or that thou mayest erect us to a dependence upon thee which canst doe it for us As when the Mother bids the Infant come to her which hath not yet the steddy use of his legs it is that he may cling the faster to her hand or coat for supportation Thou bidst us impotent wretches to keep thy royal Law Alas what can we Sinners doe there is not one letter of those thy Ten words that we are able to keep This charge of thine intends to shew us not our strength but our weakness Thus thou wouldst turn our eyes both back to what we might have done to what we could have done and upwards to thee in whom we have done it in whom we can doe it He wrongs thy Goodness and Justice that misconstrues these thy commands as if they were of the same nature with those of the Aegyptian task-masters requiring the brick and not giving the straw But in bidding us doe what we cannot thou inablest us to doe what the â—â—â—dest Thy Precepts under the Gospel have not 〈…〉 of our duty but an habilitation of 〈…〉 when thou badest the Disciples to give to the multitude thou meantest to supply unto them what thou commandedst to give Our Saviour hath what he would an acknowledgement of their insufficiency We have here but five loaves and two fishes A poor provision for the family of the Lord of the whole earth Five loaves and those barley two fishes and those little ones We well know O Saviour that the beasts were thine on a thousand mountains all the corn thine that covered the whole surface of the earth all the fowls of the air thine it was thou that providedst those drifts of Quails that fell among the tents of thy rebellious Israelites that rainedst down those showrs of Manna round about their camp and dost thou take up for thy self and thy meiny with five barley loaves and two little fishes Certainly
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
be bidden to walk unto Christ he thought of the waters Bid me to come to thee on the waters he thought not on the winds which raged on those waters or if he thought of a stiff gale yet that tempestuous and sudden gust was out of his account and expectation Those evils that we are prepared for have not such power over us as those that surprise us A good water-man sees a dangerous billow coming towards him and cuts it and mounts over it with ease the unheedy is overwhelmed O Saviour let my haste to thee be zealous but not improvident ere I set my foot out of the ship let me foresee the Tempest when I have cast the worst I cannot either miscarry or complain So soon as he began to fear he began to sink whilst he believed the Sea was brass when once he began to distrust those waves were water He cannot sink whilst he trusts the power of his Master he cannot but sink when he misdoubts it Our Faith gives us as courage and boldness so success too our Infidelity lays us open to all dangers to all mischiefs It was Peter's improvidence not to foresee it was his weakness to fear it was the effect of his fear to sink it was his Faith that recollects it self and breaks through his Infidelity and in sinking could say Lord save me His foot could not be so swift in sinking as his heart in imploring he knew who could uphold him from sinking and being sunk deliver him and therefore he says Lord save me It is a notable both sign and effect of true Faith in sudden extremities to ejaculate holy desires and with the wings of our first thoughts to fly up instantly to the throne of Grace for present succour Upon deliberation it is possible for a man that hath been careless and profane by good means to be drawn to holy dispositions but on the sudden a man will appear as he is what-ever is most rife in the heart will come forth at the mouth It is good to observe how our surprisals find us the rest is but forced this is natural Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh O Saviour no evil can be swifter then my thought my thought shall be upon thee ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief at least if I over-run not evils I shall overtake them It was Christ his Lord whom Peter had offended in distrusting it is Christ his Lord to whom he sues for deliverance His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge O God when we have displeased thee when we have sunk in thy displeasure whither should we fly for aid but to thee whom we have provoked Against thee onely is our sin in thee onely is our help In vain shall all the powers of Heaven and Earth conspire to relieve us if thou withhold from our succour As we offend thy Justice daily by our sins so let us continually rely upon thy Mercy by the strength of our Faith Lord save us The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him He doth not say Hadst thou trusted me I would have safely preserved thee but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly diffidence sink and drown but rather as pitying the infirmity of his fearfull Disciple he puts out the hand for his relief That hand hath been stretch'd forth for the aid of many a one that hath never ask'd it never any ask'd it to whose succour it hath not been stretched With what speed with what confidence should we fly to that sovereign bounty from which never any suitour was sent away empty Jesus gave Peter his hand but withall he gave him a check O thou of little faith why doubtedst thou As Peter's Faith was not pure but mixed with some distrust so our Saviour's help was not clear and absolute but mixed with some reproof A reproof wherein there was both a censure and an expostulation a censure of his Faith an expostulation for his Doubt both of them sore and heavy By how much more excellent and usefull a grace Faith is by so much more shamefull is the defect of it and by how much more reason here was of confidence by so much more blame-worthy was the Doubt Now Peter had a double reason of his confidence the command of Christ the power of Christ the one in bidding him to come the other in sustaining him whilst he came To misdoubt him whose will he knew whose power he felt was well worth a reprehension When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters I could not but wonder at his great Faith yet behold ere he can have measured many paces the Judge of hearts taxes him for little Faith Our mountains are but moats to God Would my heart have served me to dare the doing of this that Peter did Durst I have set my foot where he did O Saviour if thou foundest cause to censure the weakness and poverty of his Faith what mayest thou well say to mine They mistake that think thou wilt take up with any thing Thou lookest for firmitude and vigour in those Graces which thou wilt allow in thy best Disciples no less then truth The first steps were confident there was fear in the next Oh the sudden alteration of our affections of our dispositions One pace varies our spiritual condition What hold is there of so fickle creatures if we be left never so little to our selves As this lower world wherein we are is the region of mutability so are we the living pieces of it subject to a perpetual change It is for the blessed Saints and Angels above to be fixed in good Whilst we are here there can be no constancy expected from us but in variableness As well as our Saviour loves Peter yet he chides him It is the fruit of his favour and mercy that we escape judgment not that we escape reproof Had not Peter found grace with his Master he had been suffered to sink in silence now he is saved with a check There may be more love in frowns then in smiles Whom he loves he chastises What is chiding but a verbal castigation and what is chastisement but a real chiding Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury O let the righteous God smite me when I offend with his gracious reproofs these shall be a precious oyl that shall not break my head XXIV The Bloudy issue healed THE time was O Saviour when a worthy woman offered to touch thee and was forbidden now a meaner touches thee with approbation and â—ncouragement Yet as there was much difference in that body of thine which was the Object of that touch being now mortal and passible then impassible and immortal so there was in the Agents this a stranger that a familiar this obscure that famous The same actions vary with time and other circumstances and accordingly receive their dislike or
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
and went What was the issue As they went they were healed Lo had they stood still they had been Lepers now they went they are whole What haste the Blessing makes to overtake their Obedience This walk was required by the very Law if they should have found themselves healed what was it to prevent the time a little and to doe that sooner upon hopes which upon sense they must doe after The horrour of the Disease adds to the grace of the Cure and that is so much more gracious as the task is easier It shall cost them but a walk It is the bounty of that God whom we serve to reward our worthless endeavours with infinite requitals He would not have any proportion betwixt our acts and his remunerations Yet besides this recompence of Obedience O Saviour thou wouldst herein have respect to thine own just Glory Had not these Lepers been cured in the way but in the end of their walk upon their shewing to the Priests the Miracle had lost much light perhaps the Priests would have challenged it to themselves and have attributed it to their prayers perhaps the Lepers might have thought it was thy purpose to honour the Priests as the instruments of that marvellous Cure Now there can be no colour of any others participation since the Leprosie vanishes in the way As thy Power so thy Praise admits of no partners And now methinks I see what an amazed joy there was amongst these Lepers when they saw themselves thus suddenly cured each tells other what a change he feels in himself each comforts other with the assurance of his outward clearness each congratulates other's happiness and thinks and says how joyfull this news will be to their friends and families Their society now serves them well to applaud and heighten their new felicity The Miracle indifferently wrought upon all is differently taken All went forward according to the appointment toward the Priests all were obedient one onely was thankfull All were cured all saw themselves cured their sense was alike their hearts were not alike What could make the difference but Grace and who could make the difference of Grace but he that gave it He that wrought the Cure in all wrought the Grace not in all but in one The same act the same motives are not equally powerfull to all where the Oxe finds grass the Viper poison We all pray all hear one goes away bettered another cavils Will makes the difference but who makes the difference of wills but he that made them He that creates the new Heart leaves a stone in one bosome puts flesh into another It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that hath mercy O God if we look not up to thee we may come and not be healed we may be healed and not be thankfull This one man breaks away from his fellows to seek Christ Whilst he was a Leper he consorted with Lepers now that he is healed he will be free He saith not I came with these men with them I will goe if they will return I will accompany them if not what should I goe alone As I am not wiser then they so I have no more reason to be more thankfull There are cases wherein Singularity is not lawfull onely but laudable Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evil I and my house will serve the Lord. It is a base and unworthy thing for a man so to subject himself to others examples as not sometimes to resolve to be an example to others When either evil is to be done or good neglected how much better is it to goe the right way alone then to erre with company O noble pattern of Thankfulness what speed of retribution is here No sooner doth he see his Cure then he hasts to acknowledge it the Benefit shall not die not sleep in his hand Late professions of our obligations savour of dulness and ingratitude What a laborious and diligent officiousness is here He stands not still but puts himself to the pains of a return What an hearty recognition of the blessing His voice was not more loud in his suit then in his thanks What an humble reverence of his Benefactour He falls down at his feet as acknowledging at once beneficence and unworthiness It were happy for all Israel if they could but learn of this Samaritan This man is sent with the rest to the Priests He well knew this duty a branch of the Law of Ceremonies which he meant not to neglect but his heart told him there was a Moral duty of professing thankfulness to his Benefactour which called for his first attendence First therefore he turns back ere he will stir forward Reason taught this Samaritan and us in him that ceremony must yield to substance and that main points of Obedience ought to take place of all Rituall complements It is not for nothing that note is made of the Countrey of this thankfull Leper He was a Samaritan The place is known and branded with the infamy of a Paganish mis-religion Outward disadvantage of place or parentage cannot block up the way of God's Grace and free election as contrarily the privileges of birth and nature avail us nothing in spirituall occasions How sensible wert thou O Saviour of thine own beneficence Were there not ten cleansed but where are the nine The trouping of these Lepers together did not hinder thy reckoning It is both justice and wisedom in thee to keep a strict account of thy favours There is an wholsome and usefull art of forgetfulness in us men both of Benefits done and of Wrongs offered It is not so with God Our injuries indeed he soon puts over making it no small part of his style that he forgives iniquities but for his mercies there is no reason he should forget them they are worthy of more then our memory His favours are universal over all his works there is no creature that tasts not of his bounty his Sun and Rain are for others besides his friends but none of his good turns escapes either his knowledge or record Why should not we O God keep a book of our receits from thee which agreeing with thine may declare thee bounteous and us thankfull Our Saviour doth not ask this by way of doubt but of exprobration Full well did he count the steps of those absent Lepers he knew where they were he upbraids their ingratitude that they were not where they should have been It was thy just quarrel O Saviour that whilst one Samaritan returned nine Israelites were healed and returned not Had they been all Samaritans this had been faulty but now they were Israelites their Ingratitude was more foul then their Leprosy The more we are bound to God the more shamefull is our unthankfulness There is scarce one in ten that is carefull to give God his own this neglect is not more general then displeasing Christ had never missed their presence if their absence had
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
his right must not stand upon scrupulous fears Are we naturally timorous Why do we not fear the deniall the exclusion of the Almighty Without shall be the fearfull Her humble prostration is seconded by a lamentable complaint Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died The Sisters are both in one mind both in one speech and both of them in one speech bewray both strength and infirmity strength of Faith in ascribing so much power to Christ that his presence could preserve from death Infirmity in supposing the necessity of a presence for this purpose Why Mary could not thine Omnipotent Saviour as well in absence have commanded Lazarus to live Is his hand so short that he can doe nothing but by contaction If his Power were finite how could he have forbidden the seizure of death if infinite how could it be limited to place or hindred by distance It is a weakness of Faith to measure success by means and means by presence and to tie effects to both when we deal with an Almighty agent Finite causes work within their own sphere all places are equally near and all effects equally easy to the infinite O Saviour whilst thou now sittest gloriously in Heaven thou dost no less impart thy self unto us then if thou stoodest visibly by us then if we stood locally by thee no place can make difference of thy virtue and aid This was Mary's moan no motion no request sounded from her to her Saviour Her silent suit is returned with a mute answer no notice is taken of her errour Oh that marvellous mercy that connives at our faulty infirmities All the reply that I hear of is a compassionate groan within himself O Blessed Jesu thou that wert free from all sin wouldst not be free even from strong affections Wisedom and Holiness should want much work if even vehement passions might not be quitted from offence Mary wept her tears drew on tears from her friends all their tears united drew groans from thee Even in thine Heaven thou dost no less pity our sorrows thy Glory is free from groans but abounds with compassion and mercy if we be not sparing of our tears thou canst not be insensible of our sorrows How shall we imitate thee if like our looking-glass we do not answer tears and weep on them that weep upon us Lord thou knewest in absence that Lazarus was dead and dost thou not know where he was buried Surely thou wert farther off when thou sawest and reportedst his death then thou wert from the grave thou inquiredst of thou that knewest all things yet askest what thou knowest Where have ye laid him Not out of need but out of will that as in thy sorrow so in thy question thou mightst depress thy self in the opinion of the beholders for the time that the glory of thine instant Miracle might be the greater the less it was expected It had been all one to thy Omnipotence to have made a new Lazarus out of nothing or in that remoteness to have commanded Lazarus wheresoever he was to come forth but thou wert neither willing to work more miracle then was requisite nor yet unwilling to fix the minds of the people upon the expectation of some marvellous thing that thou meantest to work and therefore askest Where have you laid him They are not more glad of the question then ready for the answer Come and see It was the manner of the Jews as likewise of those Aegyptians among whom they had sojourned to lay up the dead bodies of their friends with great respect more cost was wont to be bestowed on some of their graves then on their houses as neither ashamed then nor unwilling to shew the decency of their sepulture they say Come and see More was hoped for from Christ then a mere view they meant and expected that his eye should draw him on to some farther action O Saviour whilst we desire our spirituall resuscitation how should we labour to bring thee to our grave how should we lay open our deadness before thee and bewray to thee our impotence and senselesness Come Lord and see what a miserable carkass I am and by the power of thy mercy raise me from the state of my corruption Never was our Saviour more submissly dejected then now immediately before he would approve and exalt the majesty of his Godhead To his groans and inward grief he adds his tears Anon they shall confess him a God these expressions of Passions shall onwards evince him to be a Man The Jews construe this well See how he loved him Never did any thing but love fetch tears from Christ But they do foully misconstrue Christ in the other Could not he that opened the eyes of him that was born blind have caused that even this man should not have died Yes know ye O vain and importune questionists that he could have done it with ease To open the eyes of a man born blind was more then to keep a sick man from dying this were but to uphold and maintain Nature from decaying that were to create a new sense and to restore a deficiency in Nature To make an eye was no whit less difficult then to make a man he that could doe the greater might well have done the less Ye shall soon see this was not for want of power Had ye said Why would he not Why did he not the question had been fairer and the answer no less easy For his own greater glory Little do ye know the drift whether of God's acts or delays and ye know as much as you are worthy Let it be sufficient for you to understand that he who can doe all things will doe that which shall be most for his own honour It is not improbable that Jesus who before groaned in himself for compassion of their tears now groaned for their incredulity Nothing could so much afflict the Saviour of men as the sins of men Could their externall wrongs to his body have been separated from offence against his Divine person their scornfull indignities had not so much affected him No injury goes so deep as our spirituall provocations of our God Wretched men why should we grieve the good Spirit of God in us why should we make him groan for us that died to redeem us With these groans O Saviour thou camest to the grave of Lazarus The door of that house of Death was strong and impenetrable Thy first word was Take away the stone O weak beginning of a mighty Miracle If thou meantest to raise the dead how much more easy had it been for thee to remove the grave-stone One grain of Faith in thy very Disciples was enough to remove mountains and dost thou say Take away the stone I wis there was a greater weight that lay upon the body of Lazarus then the stone of his Tomb the weight of Death and Corruption a thousand rocks and hills were not so heavy a load as this alone why then dost thou
up to Jerusalem Order was taken by the Priests that these might for money be had close by the Altar to the ease of the offerer and the benefit of the seller and perhaps no disprofit to themselves The pretence was fair the practice unsufferable The great Owner of the Temple comes to vindicate the reputation and rights of his own house and in an indignation at that so foul abuse lays fiercely about him and with his three-stringed scourge whips out those Sacrilegious chapmen casts down their tables throws away their baskets scatters their heaps and sends away their customers with smart and horrour With what fear and astonishment did the repining offenders look upon so unexpected a Justicer whilst their conscience lashed them more then those cords and the terrour of that meek chastiser more affrighted them then his blows Is this that mild and gentle Saviour that came to take upon him our stripes and to undergoe the chastisements of our peace Is this that quiet Lamb which before his shearers openeth not his mouth See now how his eyes sparkle with holy anger and dart forth beams of indignation in the faces of these guilty Collybists see how his hands deal strokes and ruine Yea thus thus it became thee O thou gracious Redeemer of men to let the world see thou hast not lost thy Justice in thy Mercy that there is not more lenity in thy forbearances then rigour in thy just severity that thou canst thunder as well as shine This was not thy first act of this kind at the entrance of thy publick work thou begannest so as thou now shuttest up with purging thine House Once before had these offenders been whipt out of that holy place which now they dare again defile Shame and smart is not enough to reclaim obdur'd offenders Gainfull sins are not easily checked but less easily mastered These bold flies where they are beaten off will alight again He that is filthy will be filthy still Oft yet had our Saviour been besides this in the Temple and often had seen the same disorder he doth not think fit to be always whipping It was enough thus twice to admonish and chastise them before their ruine That God who hates sin always will not chide always and strikes more seldome but he would have those few strokes perpetuall monitours and if those prevail not he smites but once It is his uniform course first the Whip and if that speed not then the Sword There is a reverence due to God's House for the Owner's sake for the service's sake Secular and profane actions are not for that Sacred roof much less uncivil and beastly What but Holiness can become that place which is the Beauty of Holiness The fairest pretences cannot bear out a sin with God Never could there be more plausible colours cast upon any act the convenience the necessity of provisions for the Sacrifice yet through all these do the fiery eyes of our Saviour see the foul Covetousness of the Priests the Fraud of the Money-changers the intolerable abuse of the Temple Common eyes may be cheated with easy pretexts but he that looks through the heart at the face justly answers our Apologies with scourges None but the hand of publick Authority must reform the abuses of the Temple If all be out of course there no man is barred from sorrow the grief may reach to all the power of reformation onely to those whom it concerneth It was but a just question though ill propounded to Moses Who made thee a Judge or a Ruler We must all imitate the zeal of our Saviour we may not imitate his correction If we strike uncalled we are justly stricken for our arrogation for our presumption A tumultuary remedy may prove a medicine worse then the disease But what shall I say of so sharp and imperious an act from so meek an Agent Why did not the Priests and Levites whose this gain partly was abett these money-changers and make head against Christ why did not those multitudes of men stand upon their defence and wrest that whip out of the hand of a seemingly-weak and unarmed Prophet but in stead hereof run away like sheep from before him not daring to abide his presence though his hand had been still Surely had these men been so many armies yea so many Legions of Devils when God will astonish and chase them they cannot have the power to stand and resist How easy is it for him that made the heart to put either terrour or courage into it at pleasure O Saviour it was none of thy least Miracles that thou didst thus drive out a world of able offenders in spite of their gain and stomackfull resolutions their very profit had no power to stay them against thy frowns Who hath resisted thy will Mens hearts are not their own they are they must be such as their Maker will have them XLIII The Fig-tree cursed WHen in this State our Saviour had rid through the streets of Jerusalem that evening he lodged not there Whether he would not that after so publick an acclamation of the people he might avoid all suspicion of plots or popularity Even unjust jealousies must be shunned neither is there less wisedom in the prevention then in the remedy of evils or whether he could not for want of an invitation Hosanna was better cheap then an entertainment and perhaps the envy of so stomacked a Reformation discouraged his hosts However he goes that evening supperless out of Jerusalem O unthankfull Citizens Do ye thus part with your no less meek then glorious King His title was not more proclaimed in your streets then your own ingratitude If he have purged the Temple yet your hearts are foul There is no wonder in mens unworthiness there is more then wonder in thy mercy O thou Saviour of men that wouldst yet return thither where thou wert so palpably disregarded If they gave thee not thy Supper thou givest them their Breakfast If thou maist not spend the night with them thou wilt with them spend the day O love of unthankfull Souls not discourageable by the most hatefull indignities by the basest repulses What burthen canst thou shrink under who canst bear the weight of Ingratitude Thou that givest food to all things living art thy self hungry Martha Mary and Lazarus kept not so poor an house but that thou mightest have eaten something at Bethany Whether thine haste out-ran thine appetite or whether on purpose thou forbarest repast to give opportunity to thine insuing Miracle I neither ask nor resolve This was not the first time that thou wast hungry As thou wouldst be a man so thou wouldst suffer those infirmities that belong to Humanity Thou camest to be our High Priest it was thy act and intention not onely to intercede for thy people but to transfer unto thy self as their sins so their weaknesses and complaints Thou knowest to pity what thou hast felt Are we pinched with want we endure but what thou
in his Covetousness and Theft those sinfull habits could not be without that authour of ill then in his damnable resolution and plot of so hainous a conspiracy against Christ Yet now as if it were new to begin After the sop Satan entred As in every gross sin which we entertain we give harbour to that evil Spirit so in every degree of growth in wickedness new hold is taken by him of the heart No sooner is the foot over the threshold then we enter into the house when we pass thence into the inner rooms we make still but a perfect entrance At first Satan entred to make the house of Judas's heart his own now he enters into it as his own The first purpose of sin opens the gates to Satan consent admits him into the entry full resolution of sin gives up the keys to his hands and puts him into absolute possession What a plain difference there is betwixt the regenerate and evil heart Satan lays siege to the best by his Temptations and sometimes upon battery and breach made enters the other admits him by willing composition When he is entred upon the Regenerate he is entertained with perpetuall skirmishes and by an holy violence at last repulsed in the other he is plausibly received and freely commandeth Oh the admirable meekness of this Lamb of God! I see not a frown I hear not a check but What thou doest doe quickly Why do we startle at our petty wrongs and swell with anger and break into furious revenges upon every occasion when the pattern of our Patience lets not fall one harshword upon so foul and bloudy a Traitour Yea so fairly is this carried that the Disciples as yet can apprehend no change they innocently think of commodities to be bought when Christ speaks of their Master sold and as one that longs to be out of pain hastens the pace of his irreclamable conspiratour That thou doest doe quickly It is one thing to say Doe what thou intendest and another to say Doe quickly what thou doest There was villany in the deed the speed had no sin the time was harmless whilst the man and the act were wicked O Judas how happy had it been for thee if thou hadst never done what thou perfidiously intendedst but since thou wilt needs doe it delay is but a torment That steely heart yet relents not the obfirmed Traitour knows his way to the High Priest's hall and to the Garden the watchword is already given Hail Master and a kiss Yet more Hypocrisy yet more presumption upon so overstrained a lenity How knewest thou O thou false Traitour whether that sacred cheek would suffer it self to be defiled with thine impure touch Thou well foundest thy treachery was unmasked thine heart could not be so false to thee as not to tell thee how hatefull thou wert Goe kiss and adore those silverlings which thou art too sure of the Master whom thou hast sold is not thine But oh the impudence of a deplored sinner That tongue which hath agreed to sell his Master dares say Hail and those lips that have passed the compact of his death dare offer to kiss him whom they had covenanted to kill It was God's charge of old Kiss the Son lest he be angry O Saviour thou hadst reason to be angry with this kiss the scourges the thorns the nails the spear of thy Murtherers were not so painfull so piercing as this touch of Judas all these were in this one alone The stabs of an Enemy cannot be so grievous as the skin-deep wounds of a Disciple XLV The Agony WHat a Preface do I find to my Saviour's Passion an Hymn and an Agony a chearfull Hymn and an Agony no less sorrowfull An Hymn begins both to raise and testify the courageous resolutions of his Suffering an Agony follows to shew that he was truly sensible of those extremities wherewith he was resolved to grapple All the Disciples bore their part in that Hymn it was fit they should all see his comfortable and Divine Magnanimity wherewith he entred into those sad lists onely Three of them shall be allowed to be the witnesses of his Agony onely those three that had been the witnesses of his glorious Transfiguration That sight had well fore-arm'd and prepared them for this how could they be dismay'd to see his trouble who there saw his Majesty how could they be dismay'd to see his Body now sweat which they had then seen to shine how could they be daunted to see him now accosted with Judas and his train whom they then saw attended with Moses and Elias how could they be discouraged to hear the reproaches of base men when they had heard the voice of God to him from that excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now before these eyes this Sun begins to be over-cast with clouds He began to be sorrowfull and very heavy Many sad thoughts for mankind had he secretly hatched and yet smothered in his own breast now his grief is too great to keep in My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death O Saviour what must thou needs feel when thou saidst so Feeble minds are apt to bemoan themselves upon light occasions the grief must needs be violent that causeth a strong heart to break forth into a passionate complaint Woe is me what a word is this for the Son of God Where is that Comforter which thou promisedst to send to others where is that thy Father of all mercies and God of all comfort in whose presence is the fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore where are those constant and chearfull resolutions of a fearless walking through the valley of the shadow of death Alas if that face were not hid from thee whose essence could not be disunited these pangs could not have been The Sun was withdrawn awhile that there might be a cool though not a dark night as in the world so in thy breast withdrawn in respect of sight not of being It was the hardest piece of thy sufferings that thou must be disconsolate But to whom dost thou make this moan O thou Saviour of men Hard is that man driven that is fain to complain to his inferiours Had Peter or James or John thus bewailed himself to thee there had been ease to their Soul in venting it self thou hadst been both apt to pity them and able to relieve them but now in that thou lamentest thy case to them alas what issue couldst thou expect They might be astonish'd with thy grief but there is neither power in their hands to free thee from those sorrows nor power in their compassion to mitigate them Nay in this condition what could all the Angels of Heaven as of themselves doe to succour thee What strength could they have but from thee What creature can help when thou complainest It must be onely the stronger that can aid the weak Old and holy Simeon could fore-say to thy
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
thou Christ who it is that smote thee O dear Jesu what a beginning is here of a Passion There thou standst bound condemned spat upon buffetted derided by malicious sinners Thou art bound who camest to loose the bands of death thou art condemned whose sentence must acquit the world thou art spat upon that art fairer then the sons of men thou art buffeted in whose mouth was no guile thou art derided who art cloathed with Glory and Majesty In the mean while how can I enough wonder at thy infinite Mercy who in the midst of all these wofull indignities couldst find a time to cast thine eyes back upon thy frail and ingratefull Disciple and in whose gracious ear Peter's Cock sounded louder then all these reproaches O Saviour thou who in thine apprehension couldst forget all thy danger to correct and heal his over-lashing now in the heat of thy arraignment and condemnation canst forget thy own misery to reclaim his errour and by that seasonable glance of thine eye to strike his heart with a needfull remorse He that was lately so valiant to fight for thee now the next morning is so cowardly as to deny thee He shrinks at the voice of a Maid who was not daunted with the sight of a Band. O Peter had thy slip been sudden thy fall had been more easy Premonition aggravates thy offence that stone was foreshew'd thee whereat thou stumbledst neither did thy warning more adde to thy guilt then thine own fore-resolution How didst thou vow though thou shouldst die with thy Master not to deny him Hadst thou said nothing but answered with a trembling silence thy shame had been the less Good purposes when they are not held do so far turn enemies to the entertainer of them as that they help to double both his sin and punishment Yet a single denial had been but easie thine I fear to speak it was lined with swearing and execration Whence then oh whence was this so vehement and peremptory disclamation of so gracious a Master What such danger had attended thy profession of his attendence One of thy fellows was known to the High priest for a Follower of Jesus yet he not onely came himself into that open Hall in view of the Bench but treated with the Maid that kept the door to let thee in also She knew him what he was and could therefore speak to thee as brought in by his mediation Art not thou also one of this man's Disciples Thou also supposes the first acknowledged such yet what crime what danger was urged upon that noted Disciple What could have been more to thee Was it that thy heart misgave thee thou mightest be called to account for Malchus It was no thank to thee that that ear was healed neither did there want those that would think how near that ear was to the head Doubtless that busie fellow himself was not far off and his fellows and kinsmen would have been apt enough to follow thee besides thy Discipleship upon a bloudshed a riot a rescue Thy conscience hath made thee thus unduly timorous and now to be sure to avoid the imputation of that affray thou renouncest all knowledge of him in whose cause thou foughtest Howsoever the sin was hainous I tremble at such a Fall of so great an Apostle It was thou O Peter that buffetedst thy Master more then those Jews it was to thee that he turned the cheek from them as to view him by whom he most smarted he felt thee afar off and answered thee with a look such a look as was able to kill and revive at once Thou hast wounded me maist thou now say O my Saviour thou hast wounded my heart with one of thine eyes that one Eye of thy Mercy hath wounded my heart with a deep remorse for my grievous sin with an indignation at my unthankfulness that one glance of thine hath resolved me into the tears of sorrow and contrition Oh that mine eyes were fountains and my cheeks chanels that shall never be dried And Peter went out and wept bitterly XLVIII CHRIST before Pilate WELL worthy were these Jews to be tributary they had cast off the yoke of their God and had justly earned this Roman servitude Tiberius had befriended them too well with so favourable a Governour as Pilate Had they had the power of life and death in their hands they had not been beholden to an Heathen for a Legall murther I know not whether they more repine at this slavery or please themselves to think how cleanly they can shift off this bloud into another's hand These great Masters of Israel flock from their own Consistory to Pilate's Judgment-hall The Sentence had been theirs the Execution must be his and now they hope to bear down Jesus with the stream of that frequent confluence But what ails you O ye Rulers of Israel that ye stand thus thronging at the door why do ye not go into that publick room of Judicature to call for that Justice ye came for Was it for that ye would not defile your selves with the contagion of an Heathen roof Holy men your Consciences would not suffer you to yield to so impure an act your Passeover must be kept your persons must be clean whilst ye expect Justice from the man ye abhor the pollution of the place Woe to you Priests Scribes Elders Hypocrites can there be any roof so unclean as that of your own breasts Not Pilate's walls but your hearts are impure Is Murther your errand and do you stick at a locall infection God shall smite you ye whited walls Do ye long to be stained with bloud with the bloud of God and do ye fear to be defiled with the touch of Pilate's pavement Doth so small a Gnat stick in your throats whilst ye swallow such a Camel of flagitious wickedness Go out of your selves ye false dissemblers if ye would not be unclean Pilate onwards hath more cause to fear lest his walls should be defiled with the presence of so prodigious Monsters of Impiety That plausible Governour condescends to humour their Superstition They dare not come in to him he yields to go forth to them Even Pilate begins justly What accusation bring you against this man It is no judging of Religion by the outward demeanour of men there is more Justice amongst Romans then amongst Jews These malicious Rabbi's thought it enough that they had sentenced Jesus no more was now expected but a speedy execution If he were not a malefactour we would not have delivered him up unto thee Civill Justice must be their hangman It is enough conviction that he is delivered up to the secular powers Themselves have judg'd these other must kill Pilate and Caiaphas have changed places this Pagan speaks that Law and Justice which that High priest should have done and that High priest speaks those murthering incongruities which would better have beseemed the mouth of a Pagan What needs any new triall Dost thou know Pilate who we are
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