thing here had horrour The Place both solitary and a Sepulcher Nature abhors as the visage so the region of Death and Corruption The Time Night onely the Moon gave them some faint glimmering for this being the seventeenth day of her age afforded some light to the latter part of the night The Business the visitation of a dead Corps Their zealous Love hath easily overcome all these They had followed him in his Sufferings when the Disciples left him they attended him to his Cross weeping they followed him to his Grave and saw how Joseph laid him even there they leave him not but ere it be day-light return to pay him the last tribute of their duty How much stronger is Love then death O Blessed Jesu why should not we imitate thy love to us Those whom thou lovest thou lovest to the end yea in it yea after it even when we are dead not our Souls onely but our very dust is dearly respected of thee What condition of thine should remove our affections from thy person in Heaven from thy lims on earth Well did these worthy Women know what Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus had done to thee they saw how curiously they had wrapped thee how preciously they had embalmed thee yet as not thinking others beneficence could be any just excuse of theirs they bring their own Odours to thy Sepulture to be perfumed by the touch of thy Sacred Body What thank is it to us that others are obsequious to thee whilst we are slack or niggardly We may rejoyce in others forwardness but if we rest in it how small joy shall it be to us to see them go to Heaven without us When on the Friday-evening they attended Joseph to the intombing of Jesus they mark'd the place they mark'd the passage they mark'd that inner grave-stone which the owner had fitted to the mouth of that tomb which all there care is now to remove Who shall roll away the stone That other more weighty load wherewith the vault was barred the seal the guard set upon both came not perhaps into their knowledge this was the private plot of Pilate and the Priests beyond the reach of their thoughts I do not hear them say How shall we recover the charges of our Odours or How shall we avoid the envy and censure of our angry Elders for honouring him whom the Governours of our Nation have thought worthy of condemnation The onely thought they now take is Who shall roll away the stone Neither do they stay at home and move this doubt but when they are well forward on their way resolving to try the issue Good hearts cannot be so solicitous for any thing under Heaven as for removing those impediments which lie between them and their Saviour O Blessed Jesu thou who art clearly revealed in Heaven art yet still both hid and sealed up from too many here on earth Neither is it some thin veil that is spred between thee and them but an huge stone even a true stone of offence lies rolled upon the mouth of their hearts Yea if a second weight were superadded to thy Grave here no less then three spirituall bars are interposed betwixt them and thee above Idleness Ignorance Unbelief Who shall roll away these stones but the same power that removed thine O Lord remove that our Ignorance that we may know thee our Idleness that we may seek thee our Unbelief that we may find and enjoy thee How well it succeeds when we go faithfully and conscionably about our work and leave the issue to God Lo now God hath removed the cares of these holy Women together with the grave-stone To the wicked that falls out which they feared to the Godly that which they wished and cared for yea more Holy cares ever prove well the worldly dry the bones and disappoint the hopes Could these good Visitants have known of a greater stone sealed of a strong watch set their doubts had been doubled now God goes beyond their thoughts and at once removes that which both they did and might have feared The stone is removed the seal broken the watch fled What a scorn doth the Almighty God make of the impotent designs of men They thought the stone shall make the grave sure the seal shall make the stone sure the guard shall make both sure Now when they think all safe God sends an Angel from Heaven above the earth quakes beneath the stone rolls away the Souldiers stand like carkasses and when they have got heart enough to run away think themselves valiant the Tomb is opened Christ is risen they confounded Oh the vain projects of silly men as if with one shovel-full of mire they would dam up the Sea or with a clout hang'd forth they would keep the Sun from shining Oh these Spiders-webs or houses of cards which fond children have as they think skilfully framed which the least breath breaks and ruines Who are we sorry worms that we should look in any business to prevail against our Creatour What creature is so base that he cannot arm against us to our confusion The Lice and Frogs shall be too strong for Pharaoh the Worms for Herod There is no wisedom nor counsell against the Lord. Oh the marvellous pomp and magnificence of our Saviour's Resurrection The Earth quakes the Angel appears that it may be plainly seen that this Divine person now rising had the command both of Earth and Heaven At the dissolution of thine Humane nature O Saviour was an Earthquake at the re-uniting of it is an Earthquake to tell the world that the God of Nature then suffered and had now conquered Whilst thou laiest still in the earth the earth was still when thou camest to fetch thine own The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord at the presence of the God of Jacob. When thou our true Sampson awakedst and foundest thy self tied with these Philistian cords and rousedst up and brakest those hard and strong twists with a sudden power no marvell if the room shook under thee Good cause had the earth to quake when the God that made it powerfully calls for his own flesh from the usurpation of her bowells Good cause had she to open her graves and yield up her dead in attendence to the Lord of Life whom she had presumed to detain in that cell of darkness What a seeming impotence was here that thou who art the true Rock of thy Church shouldst lie obscurely shrouded in Joseph's rock thou that art the true corner-stone of thy Church shouldst be shut up with a double stone the one of thy grave the other of thy vault thou by whom we are sealed to the day of our Redemption shouldst be sealed up in a blind cavern of earth But now what a demonstration of power doth both the world and I see in thy glorious Resurrection The rocks tear the graves open the stones roll away the dead rise and appear the Souldiers flee and tremble Saints and Angels
have seen Oft-times those which are nearest in place are farthest off in affection Large objects when they are too close to the eye do so over-fill the sense that they are not discerned What a shame is this to Bethlehem the Sages came out of the East to worship him whom that village refused The Bethlehemites were Jews the Wise men Gentiles This first entertainment of Christ was a presage of the sequell The Gentiles shall come from far to adore Christ whilst the Jews reject him Those Easterlings were great searchers of the depths of nature professed Philosophers them hath God singled out to the honour of the manifestation of Christ Humane Learning well improved makes us capable of Divine There is no Knowledge whereof God is not the Authour he would never have bestowed any gift that should lead us away from himself It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into Nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy Doubtlesse this light was visible unto more onely they followed it who knew it had more then nature He is truly wise that is wise for his own Soul If these Wise men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven and had not seen the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into utter darknesse Philosophie without this Star is but the wisp of errour These Sages were in a mean between the Angels and the Shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent Creatures have some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the Shepherds the Star guides the Sages the duller capacitie hath the more clear and powerfull helps The wisedome of our good God proportions the means unto the disposition of the persons Their Astronomy had taught them this Star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightnesse or in motion The eyes of Nature might well see that some strange news was portended to the world by it but that this Star designed the Birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the Star had not besides had the commentary of a revelation from God it could have led the Wise men onely into a fruitlesse wonder Give them to be the offspring of Balaam yet the true Prediction of that false Prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a Star out of Jacob he did not tell them that a Star should arise far from the posterity of Jacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophecy into the mouth of Balaam did also put this Illumination into the heart of the Sages The Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seek Christ when the Children of the Kingdom shall be shut out Even then God did not so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Jerusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the Mother-city of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first onely generall to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry They were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the world's that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithfull That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the Head-citie of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisedome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from Heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spirituall matters For God uses still to go a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly Truths as the profound Doctours of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethlehem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaies the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviour's Nativity If the Star had carried them directly to Bethlehem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those Prophecies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a farther advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of loss Little did the Sages think this Question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or Grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivality Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this news had been if it had faln upon Herod's own loins the more grievous it was to light upon a Stranger If Herod had not over-much affected Greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumour of a Successour and that not of his own Settled Greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his Subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forreiners could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is nettled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no less full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Sovereignty yea such a King as by whom Kings do hold their Scepters not lose them If the Wise men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he his Heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise
of those eyes whom thou wouldst bless with the sight of thee thou wert seen indeed of five hundred at once but they were Brethren So in thine Ascension thou didst not carry all Jerusalem promiscuously forth with thee to see thy glorious departure but onely that selected company of thy Disciples which had attended thee in thy life Those who immediately upon thine ascending returned to Jerusalem were an hundred and twenty persons a competent number of witnesses to verify that thy miraculous and triumphant passage into thy Glory Lo those onely were thought worthy to behold thy majesticall Ascent which had been partners with thee in thy Humiliation Still thou wilt have it thus with us O Saviour and we embrace the condition if we will converse with thee in thy lowly estate here upon earth wading with thee through contempt and manifold afflictions we shall be made happy with the sight and communion of thy Glory above O my Soul be thou now if ever ravished with the contemplation of this comfortable and blessed farewell of thy Saviour What a sight was this how full of joyfull assurance of spirituall consolation Methinks I see it still with their eyes how thou my glorious Saviour didst leisurely and insensibly rise up from thine Olivet taking leave of thine acclaiming Disciples now left below thee with gracious eyes with Heavenly benedictions Methinks I see how they followed thee with eager and longing eyes with arms lifted up as if they had wished them winged to have soared up after thee And if Eliah gave assurance to his servant Elisha that if he should behold him in that rapture his Master's Spirit should be doubled upon him what an accession of the spirit of joy and confidence must needs be to thy happy Disciples in seeing thee thus gradually rising up to thy Heaven Oh how unwillingly did their intentive eyes let go so Blessed an Object How unwelcome was that Cloud that interposed it self betwixt thee and them and closing up it self left onely a glorious splendour behind it as the bright track of thine Ascension Of old here below the Glory of the Lord appeared in the Cloud now afar off in the sky the Cloud intercepted this Heavenly Glory if distance did not rather doe it then that bright meteor Their eyes attended thee on thy way so far as their beams would reach when they could goe no farther the Cloud received thee Lo yet even that very screen whereby thou wert taken off from all earthly view was no other then glorious how much rather do all the beholders fix their sight upon that Cloud then upon the best piece of the Firmament Never was the Sun it self gazed on with so much intention With what long looks with what astonished acclamations did these transported beholders follow thee their ascending Saviour as if they would have look'd through that Cloud and that Heaven that hid thee from them But oh what tongue of the highest Archangel of Heaven can express the welcome of thee the King of Glory into those Blessed Regions of Immortality Surely the Empyreall Heaven never resounded with so much joy God ascended with jubilation and the Lord with the sound of the Trumpet It is not for us weak and finite creatures to wish to conceive those incomprehensible spirituall Divine gratulations that the Glorious Trinity gave to the victorious and now-glorified Humane nature Certainly if when he brought his onely-begotten Son into the world he said Let all the Angels worship him much more now that he ascends on high and hath led captivity captive hath he given him a Name above all names that at the Name of JESVS all knees should bow And if the Holy Angels did so carol at his Birth in the very entrance into that estate of Humiliation and infirmity with what triumph did they receive him now returning from the perfect atchievement of Man's Redemption And if when his type had vanquished Goliah and carried the head into Jerusalem the damsels came forth to meet him with dances and timbrels how shall we think those Angelicall Spirits triumphed in meeting of the great Conquerour of Hell and Death How did they sing Lift up your heads ye gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in Surely as he shall come so he went and behold he shall come with thousands of his Holy ones thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand thousands stood before him From all whom methinks I hear that blessed applause Worthy is the Lamb that was killed to receive power and riches and wisedom and strength and honour and glory and praise Praise and honour and glory and power be to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb for evermore And why dost not thou O my Soul help to bear thy part with that happy Quire of Heaven Why art not thou rapt out of my bosome with an ecstasy of joy to see this Humane nature of ours exalted above all the Powers of Heaven adored of Angels Archangels Cherubin Seraphim and all those mighty and glorious Spirits and sitting there crowned with infinite Glory and Majesty Although little would it avail thee that our Nature is thus honoured if the benefit of this Ascension did not reflect upon thee How many are miserable enough in themselves notwithstanding the Glory of their humane nature in Christ None but those that are found in him are the happier by him who but the Members are the better for the glory of the Head O Saviour how should our weakness have ever hoped to climb into Heaven if thou hadst not gone before and made way for us It is for us that thou the fore-runner art entred in Now thy Church hath her wish Draw me and I shall run after thee Even so O Blessed Jesu how ambitiously should we follow thee with the paces of Love and Faith and aspire towards thy Glory Thou that art the way hast made the way to thy self and us Thou didst humble thy self and becamest obedient to the death even to the death of the Cross Therefore hath God also highly exalted thee and upon the same terms will not fail to advance us we see thy track before us of Humility and Obedience O teach me to follow thee in the roughest ways of Obedience in the bloudy paths of Death that I may at last overtake thee in those high steps of Immortality Amongst those millions of Angels that attended this triumphant Ascension of thine O Saviour some are appointed to this lower station to comfort thine astonished Disciples in the certain assurance of thy no-less-glorious Return Two men stood by them in white apparell They stood by them they were not of them they seemed Men they were Angels Men for their familiarity two for more certainty of testimony in white for the joy of thine Ascension The Angels formerly celebrated thy Nativity with Songs but we do not find they then appeared in white thou wert then to undergoe much sorrow
to his God Christ hath left many a soul for froward and unkind usage never any for the disparagement of it self and intreaties of humility Simon could not devise how to hold Christ faster then by thus suing to him to be gone then by thus pleading his Unworthiness O my soul be not weary of complaining of thine own wretchedness disgrace thy self to him that knows thy vileness be astonished at those mercies which have shamed thine ill deservings Thy Saviour hath no power to go away from a prostrate heart He that resists the proud heartens the lowly Fear not for I will make thee henceforth a Fisher of men Loe this Humility is rewarded with an Apostleship What had the Earth ever more glorious then a Legacy from Heaven He that bade Christ go from him shall have the honour to go first on this happy errand This was a Trade that Simon had no skill of it could not but be enough to him that Christ said I will make thee the Miracle shewed him able to make good his word He that hath power to command the Fishes to be taken can easily inable the hands to take them What is this Divine Trade of ours then but a spiritual Piscation The World is a Sea Souls like Fishes swim at liberty in this Deep the Nets of wholsome Doctrine draw up some to the shore of Grace and Glory How much skill and toil and patience is requisite in this Art Who is sufficient for these things This Sea these Nets the Fishers the Fish the Vessels are all thine O God doe what thou wilt in us and by us Give us ability and grace to take give men will and grace to be taken and take thou Glory by that which thou hast given XI The Marriage in Cana. WAS this then thy first Miracle O Saviour that thou wroughtest in Cana of Galilee And could there be a greater Miracle then this that having been thirty years upon earth thou didst no Miracle till now that thy Divinity did hide it self thus long in Flesh that so long thou wouldst lie obscure in a corner of Galilee unknown to that World thou camest to redeem that so long thou wouldst strain the patient expectation of those who ever since thy Star waited upon the revelation of a Messias We silly wretches if we have but a dram of Vertue are ready to set it out to the best show Thou who receivedst not the Spirit by measure wouldst content thy self with a willing obscurity and concealedst that Power that made the World in the roof of an Humane breast in a Cottage of Nazareth O Saviour none of thy Miracles is more worthy of astonishment then thy not doing of Miracles What thou didst in private thy wisedom thought fit for secrecy but if thy Blessed Mother had not been acquainted with some domestical Wonders she had not now expected a Miracle abroad The Stars are not seen by day the Sun it self is not seen by night As it is no small art to hide Art so is it no small glory to conceal Glory Thy first publick Miracle graceth a Marriage It is an ancient and laudable institution that the Rites of Matrimony should not want a solemn celebration When are Feasts in season if not at the recovery of our lost Rib if not at this main change of our estate wherein the joy of obtaining meets with the hope of farther comforts The Son of the Virgin and the Mother of that Son are both at a Wedding It was in all likelihood some of their Kindred to whose nuptiall feast they were invited so far yet was it more the honour of the act then of the person that Christ intended He that made the first Marriage in Paradise bestows his first Miracle upon a Galilaean Marriage He that was the Authour of Matrimony and sanctified it doth by his Holy presence honour the resemblance of his eternall union with his Church How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure Adversaries of Wedlock when the Son of God pleases to honour it The glorious Bridegroom of the Church knew well how ready men would be to place shame even in the most lawfull conjunctions and therefore his first work shall be to countenance his own Ordinance Happy is that Wedding where Christ is a Guest O Saviour those that marry in thee cannot marry without thee There is no holy Marriage whereat thou art not however invisible yet truly present by thy Spirit by thy gracious Benediction Thou makest Marriages in Heaven thou blessest them from Heaven O thou that hast betrothed us to thy self in Truth and Righteousness do thou consummate that happy Marriage of ours in the highest Heavens It was no rich or sumptuous Bridal to which Christ with his Mother and Disciples vouchsafed to come from the farther parts of Galilee I find him not at the magnificent feasts or triumphs of the Great The proud pomp of the World did not agree with the state of a Servant This poor needy Bridegroom wants drink for his guests The Blessed Virgin though a stranger to the house out of a charitable compassion and a friendly desire to maintain the decency of an hospitall entertainment inquires into the wants of her Host pities them bemoans them where there was power of redress When the wine failed the mother of Jesus said unto him They have no wine How well doth it beseem the eyes of piety and Christian love to look into the necessities of others She that conceived the God of mercies both in her heart and in her womb doth not fix her eyes upon her own Trencher but searcheth into the penury of a poor Israelite and feels those wants whereof he complains not They are made for themselves whose thoughts are onely taken up with their own store or indigence There was wine enough for a meal though not for a feast and if there were not wine enough there was enough water yet the Holy Virgin complains of the want of wine and is troubled with the very lack of superfluity The bounty of our God reaches not to our life onely but to our contentment neither hath he thought good to allow us onely the bread of sufficiency but sometimes of pleasure One while that is but necessary which some other time were superfluous It is a scrupulous injustice to scant our selves where God hath been liberal To whom should we complain of any want but to the Maker and Giver of all things The Blessed Virgin knew to whom she sued She had good reason to know the Divine nature and power of her Son Perhaps the Bridegroom was not so needy but if not by his purse yet by his credit he might have supplied that want or it were hard if some of the neighbour-guests had they been duely solicited might not have furnished him with so much wine as might suffice for the last service of a dinner But Blessed Mary knew a nearer way she did not think best to lade at the shallow Chanel but runs
rather to the Well-head where she may dip and fill the Firkins at once with ease It may be she saw that the Train of Christ which unbidden followed unto that Feast and unexpectedly added to the number of the guests might help forward that defect and therefore she justly solicits her Son Jesus for a supply Whether we want Bread or Water or Wine Necessaries or Comforts whither should we run O Saviour but to that infinite munificence of thine which neither denieth nor upbraideth any thing We cannot want we cannot abound but from thee Give us what thou wilt so thou give us Contentment with what thou givest But what is this I hear A sharp answer to the suit of a Mother O woman what have I to doe with thee He whose sweet mildness and mercy never sent away any suppliant discontented doth he onely frown upon her that bare him He that commands us to honour Father and Mother doth he disdain her whose flesh he took God forbid Love and Duty doth not exempt Parents from due admonition She solicited Christ as a Mother he answers her as a Woman If she were the Mother of his Flesh his Deity was eternal She might not so remember her self to be a Mother that she should forget she was a Woman nor so look upon him as a Son that she should not regard him as a God He was so obedient to her as a Mother that withall she must obey him as her God That part which he took from her shall observe her She must observe that nature which came from above and made her both a Woman and a Mother Matter of miracle concerned the Godhead onely Supernatural things were above the sphere of fleshly relation If now the Blessed Virgin will be prescribing either time or form unto Divine acts O woman what have I to doe with thee my hour is not come In all bodily actions his style was O Mother in spiritual and heavenly O Woman Neither is it for us in the holy affairs of God to know any faces yea if we have known Christ heretofore according to the flesh henceforth know we him so no more O Blessed Virgin if in that heavenly Glory wherein thou art thou canst take notice of these earthly things with what indignation dost thou look upon the presumptuous Superstition of vain men whose suits make thee more then a Solicitour of Divine Favours Thy Humanity is not lost in thy Motherhood nor in thy Glory The respects of Nature reach not so high as Heaven It is far from thee to abide that Honour which is stoln from thy Redeemer There is a Marriage whereto we are invited yea wherein we are already interessed not as the Guests onely but as the Bride in which there shall be no want of the Wine of gladness It is marvel if in these earthly Banquets there be not some lack In thy presence O Saviour there is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Blessed are they that are called to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. Even in that rough Answer doth the Blessed Virgin descry cause of hope If his hour were not yet come it was therefore coming When the expectation of the guests and the necessity of the occasion had made fit room for the Miracle it shall come forth and challenge their wonder Faithfully therefore and observantly doth she turn her speech from her Son to the Waiters Whatsoever he saith unto you doe it How well doth it beseem the Mother of Christ to agree with his Father in Heaven whose voice from Heaven said This is my wel-beloved Son hear him She that said of her self Be it unto me according to thy word says unto others Whatsoever he saith unto you doe it This is the way to have Miracles wrought in us Obedience to his Word The power of Christ did not stand upon their Officiousness he could have wrought wonders in spite of them but their perverse refusal of his commands might have made them uncapable of the favour of a miraculous action He that can when he will convince the obstinate will not grace the disobedient He that could work without us or against us will not work for us but by us This very poor House was furnished with many and large Vessels for outward purification As if Sin had dwelt upon the skin that superstitious people sought holiness in frequent Washings Even this rinsing fouled them with the uncleanness of a traditional will-worship It is the Soul which needs scowring and nothing can wash that but the Bloud which they desperately wished upon themselves and their children for guilt not for expiation Purge thou us O Lord with hyssop and we shall be clean wash us and we shall be whiter then snow The Waiters could not but think strange of so unseasonable a command Fill the water-pots It is Wine that we want what do we go to fetch Water Doth this Holy man mean thus to quench our feast and cool our stomacks If there be no remedy we could have sought this supply unbidden Yet so far hath the charge of Christ's Mother prevailed that in stead of carrying flagons of Wine to the Table they go to fetch pails-full of Water from the Cisterns It is no pleading of unlikelihoods against the command of an Almighty power He that could have created Wine immediately in those vessels will rather turn Water into Wine In all the course of his Miracles I do never find him making ought of nothing all his great works are grounded upon former existences He multiplied the Bread he changed the Water he restored the withered Lims he raised the Dead and still wrought upon that which was and did not make that which was not What doeth he in the ordinary way of nature but turn the watery juice that arises up from the root into wine He will onely doe this now suddenly and at once which he doeth usually by sensible degrees It is ever duly observed by the Son of God not to doe more Miracles then he needs How liberal are the provisions of Christ If he had turned but one of those vessels it had been a just proof of his power and perhaps that quantity had served the present necessity now he furnisheth them with so much wine as would have served an hundred and fifty guests for an intire feast Even the measure magnifies at once both his power and mercy The munificent hand of God regards not our need onely but our honest affluence It is our sin and our shame if we turn his favour into wantonness There must be first a filling ere there be a drawing out Thus in our vessels the first care must be of our receit the next of our expence God would have us Cisterns not Chanels Our Saviour would not be his own taster but he sends the first draught to the Governour of the feast He knew his own power they did not Neither would he bear witness of himself but fetch it out of
and Spirits respites the utmost of their torment He might upon the first instant of the fall of Angels have inflicted on them the highest extremity of his vengeance he might upon the first sins of our youth yea of our nature have swept us away and given us our portion in that fiery lake He stays a time for both though with this difference of mercy to us men that here not onely is a delay but may be an utter prevention of punishment which to the evil Spirits is altogether impossible They do suffer they must suffer and though they have now deserved to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they do Yet so doth this evil Spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment me not The world is well changed since Satan's first onset upon Christ Then he could say If thou be the Son of God now Jesus the Son of the Most high God then All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me now I beseech thee torment me not The same power when he lists can change the note of the Tempter to us How happy are we that have such a Redeemer as can command the Devils to their chains O consider this ye lawless sinners that have said Let us break his bands and cast his cords from us However the Almighty suffers you for a judgment to have free scope to evil and ye can now impotently resist the revealed will of your Creatour yet the time shall come when ye shall see the very masters whom ye have served the powers of darkness unable to avoid the revenges of God How much less shall man strive with his Maker Man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches every creature to wish a freedome from pain The foulest Spirits cannot but love themselves and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evil Yet what a thing is this to hear the Devil at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Devotion is not guilty of this but fear There is no grace in the suit of Devils but nature no respect of glory to their Creatour but their own ease they cannot pray against sin but against torment for sin What news is it now to hear the profanest mouth in extremity imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Devils do so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into pain onely the good heart can say Lead me not into temptation If we can as heartily pray against sin for the avoiding of displeasure as against punishment when we have displeased there is true Grace in the soul Indeed if we could fervently pray against sin we should not need to pray against punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that body but if we have not laboured against our sins in vain do we pray against punishment God must be just and the wages of sin is death It pleased our Holy Saviour not onely to let fall words of command upon this Spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christ's actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grandmother to hold chat with Satan That God who knows the craft of that old Serpent and our weak simplicity hath charged us not to enquire of an evil Spirit Surely if the Disciples returning to Jacob's Well wondred to see Christ talk with a woman well may we wonder to see him talking with an unclean Spirit Let it be no presumption O Saviour to ask upon what grounds thou didst this wherein we may not follow thee We know that sin was excepted in thy conformity of thy self to us we know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibility of taint in thy nature in thine actions Neither is it hard to conceive how the same thing may be done by thee without sin which we cannot but sin in doing There is a vast difference in the Intention in the Agent For as on the one side thou didst not ask the name of the Spirit as one that knew not and would learn by enquiring but that by the confession of that mischief which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the cure might be the more conspicuous the more glorious so on the other God and Man might doe that safely which meer Man cannot doe without danger Thou mightest touch the leprosie and not be legally unclean because thou touchedst it to heal it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy Divine nature wert uncapable of any stain by the interlocution with Satan safely confer with him whom corrupt Man predisposed to the danger of such a parly may not meddle with without sin because not without peril It is for none but God to hold discourse with Satan Our surest way is to have as little to doe with that Evil one as we may and if he shall offer to maintain conference with us by his secret temptations to turn our speech unto our God with the Archangel The Lord rebuke thee Satan It was the presupposition of him that knew it that not onely men but Spirits have names This then he asks not out of an ignorance or curiosity nothing could be hid from him who calleth the Stars and all the hoasts of Heaven by their names but out of a just respect to the glory of the Miracle he was working whereto the notice of the name would not a little avail For if without inquiry or confession our Saviour had ejected this evil Spirit it had passed for the single dispossession of one onely Devil whereas now it appears there was a combination and hellish champarty in these powers of darkness which were all forced to vail unto that almighty command Before the Devil had spoken singularly of himself What have I to doe with thee and I beseech thee torment me not yet our Saviour knowing that there was a multitude of Devils lurking in that breast who dissembled their presence wrests it out of the Spirit by this interrogation What is thy name Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselves He that asked the question forced the answer My name is Legion The authour of discord hath borrowed a name of war from that military order of discipline by which the Jews were subdued doth the Devil fetch his denomination They were many yet they say My name not Our name though many they speak as one they act as one in this possession There is a marvellous accordance even betwixt evil Spirits That Kingdome is not divided for then it could not stand I wonder not that wicked men do so conspire in evil that there is such unanimity in the broachers and abetters of errours when I see those Devils which are many in substance are one in name action habitation Who can too much brag of unity when it is incident unto wicked Spirits All the
Martha might have sate still as well as she She might have stirr'd about as well as Martha Mary's will made this choice not without the inclination of him who both gave this will and commends it That will was before renewed no marvel if it chose the good though this were not in a case of good and evil but of good and better We have still this holy freedome through the inoperation of him that hath freed us Happy are we if we can improve this liberty to the best advantage of our Souls The stability or perpetuity of good addes much to the praise of it Martha's part was soon gone the thank and use of a little outward Hospitality cannot long last but Mary's shall not be taken away from her The act of her hearing was transient the fruit permanent she now hears that which shall stick by her for ever What couldst thou hear O Holy Mary from those Sacred lips which we hear not still That Heavenly Doctrine is never but the same not more subject to change then the Authour of it It is not impossible that the exercise of the Gospel should be taken from us but the benefit and virtue of it is as inseparable from our Souls as their Being In the hardest times that shall stick closest to us and till death in death after death shall make us happy XXXV The Beggar that was born blind cured THE man was born blind This Cure requires not Art but Power a Power no less then infinite and Divine Nature presupposeth a matter though formless Art looks for matter formed to our hands God stands not upon either Where there was not an Eye to be healed what could an Oculist doe It is onely a God that can create Such are we O God to all spiritual things we want not sight but eyes it must be thou onely that canst make us capable of illumination The blind man sate begging Those that have eyes and hands and feet of their own may be able to help themselves those that want these helps must be beholden to the eyes hands feet of others The impotent are cast upon our mercy Happy are we if we can lend lims and senses to the needy Affected beggary is odious that which is of God's making justly challengeth relief Where should this blind man sit begging but near the Temple At one gate sits a Cripple a Blind man at another Well might these miserable Souls suppose that Piety and Charity dwelt close together the two Tables were both of one quarry Then are we best disposed to mercy towards our brethren when we have either craved or acknowledged God's mercy towards our selves If we go thither to beg of God how can we deny mites when we hope for talents Never did Jesus move one foot but to purpose He passed by but so as that his Virtue stayed so did he pass by that his eye was fixed The blind man could not see him he sees the blind man His goodness prevents us and yields better supplies to our wants He saw compassionately not shutting his eyes not turning them aside but bending them upon that dark and disconsolate Object That which was said of the Sun is much more true of him that made it Nothing is hid from his light but of all other things Miseries especially of his own are most intentively eyed of him Could we be miserable unseen we had reason to be heartless O Saviour why should we not imitate thee in this mercifull improvement of our Senses Wo be to those eyes that care onely to gaze upon their own beauty bravery wealth not abiding to glance upon the sores of Lazarus the sorrows of Joseph the dungeon of Jeremy the blind Beggar at the gate of the Temple The Disciples see the blind man too but with different eyes our Saviour for pity and cure they for expostulation Master who did sin this man or his Parents that he is born blind I like well that whatsoever doubt troubled them they straight vent it into the ear of their Master O Saviour whilst thou art in Heaven thy school is upon earth Wherefore serve thy Priests lips but to preserve knowledge What use is there of the tongue of the learned but to speak a word in season Thou teachest us still and still we doubt and ask and learn In one short question I find two Truths and two Falshoods the Truths implied the Falshoods expressed It is true that commonly man's suffering is for sin that we may justly and do often suffer even for the sins of our Parents It is false that there is no other reason of our suffering but sin that a man could sin actually before he was or was before his being or could before-hand suffer for his after-sins In all likelihood that absurd conceit of the Transmigration of Souls possessed the very Disciples How easily and how far may the best be miscarried with a common errour We are not thankfull for our own illumination if we do not look with charity and pity upon the gross mis-opinions of our brethren Our Saviour sees and yet will wink at so foul a misprision of his Disciples I hear neither chiding nor conviction He that could have inlightned their minds as he did the world at once will doe it by due leisure and onely contents himself here with a mild solution Neither this man nor his Parents We learn nothing of thee O Saviour if not meekness What a sweet temper should be in our carriage towards the weaknesses of others judgments how should we instruct them without bitterness and without violence of Passion expect the meet seasons of their better information The tender Mother or Nurse doth not rate her little one for that he goes not well but gives him her hand that he may goe better It is the spirit of lenity that must restore and confirm the lapsed The answer is direct and punctuall neither the sin of the man nor of his Parents bereaved him of his eyes there was an higher cause of this privation the glory that God meant to win unto himself by redressing it The Parents had sinned in themselves the man had sinned in his first Parents it is not the guilt of either that is guilty of this blindness All God's afflictive acts are not punishments some are for the benefit of the creature whether for probation or prevention or reformation all are for the praise whether of his Divine Power or Justice or Mercy It was fit so great a work should be usher'd in with a preface A sudden and abrupt appearance would not have beseemed so glorious a demonstration of Omnipotence The way is made our Saviour addresses himself to the Miracle a Miracle not more in the thing done then in the form of doing it The matter used was Clay Could there be a meaner could there be ought more unfit O Saviour how oft hadst thou cured blindnesses by thy word alone how oft by thy touch How easily couldst thou have done so here Was
to us in our first birth our new birth acquits us from him and cuts off all his claim How miserable are they that have nothing but Nature Better had it been to have been unborn then not to be born again And if this poor soul from an infant were thus miserably handled having done none actual evil how just cause have we to fear the like Judgments who by many foul offences have deserved to draw this executioner upon us O my Soul thou hast not room enough for thankfulness to that good God who hath not delivered thee up to that malignant Spirit The distressed Father sits not still neglects not means I brought him to thy Disciples Doubtless the man came first to seek for Christ himself finding him absent he makes suit to the Disciples To whom should we have recourse in all our spiritual complaints but to the agents and messengers of God The noise of the like cures had surely brought this man with much confidence to crave their succour and now how cold was he at the heart when he found that his hopes were frustrate They could not cast him out No doubt the Disciples tried their best they laid their wonted charge upon this dumb spirit but all in vain They that could come with joy and triumph to their Master and say The Devils are subject to us find now themselves matched with a stubborn and refractory spirit Their way was hitherto smooth and fair they met with no rub till now And now surely the father of the Demoniack was not more troubled at this event then themselves How could they chuse but fear lest their Master had with himself with-drawn that spiritual power which they had formerly exercised Needs must their heart fail them with their success The man complained not of their impotence it were fondly injurious to accuse them for that which they could not doe had the want been in their will they had well deserved a querulous language it was no fault to want power Onely he complains of the stubbornness and laments the invincibleness of that evil spirit I should wrong you O ye blessed Followers of Christ if I should say that as Israel when Moses was gone up into the Mount lost their belief with their guide so that ye missing your Master who was now ascended up to his Tabor were to seek for your Faith Rather the Wisedom of God saw reason to check your over-assured forwardness and both to pull down your hearts by a just humiliation in the sense of your own weakness and to raise up your hearts to new acts of dependence upon that sovereign power from which your limited virtue was derived What was more familiar to the Disciples then ejecting of Devils In this onely it is denied them Our good God sometimes finds it requisite to hold us short in those abilities whereof we make least doubt that we may feel whence we had them God will be no less glorified in what we cannot doe then in what we can doe If his Graces were alwaies at our command and ever alike they would seem naturall and soon run into contempt now we are justly held in an awfull dependence upon that gracious hand which so gives as not to cloy us and so denies as not to discourage us Who could now but expect that our Saviour should have pitied and bemoaned the condition of this sad father and miserable son and have let fall some words of comfort upon them In stead whereof I hear him chiding and complaining O faithless and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you Complaining not of that wofull father and more wofull son it was not his fashion to adde affliction to the distressed to break such bruised reeds but of those Scribes who upon the failing of the success of this suit had insulted upon the disability of the Followers of Christ and depraved his power although perhaps this impatient father seduced by their suggestion might slip into some thoughts of distrust There could not be a greater crimination then faithless and perverse faithless in not believing perverse in being obstinately set in their unbelief Doubtless these men were not free from other notorious crimes all were drowned in their Infidelity Morall uncleannesses or violences may seem more hainous to men none are so odious to God as these Intellectuall wickednesses What an happy change is here in one breath of Christ How long shall I suffer you Bring him hither to me The one is a word of anger the other of favour His just indignation doth not exceed or impeach his Goodness What a sweet mixture there is in the perfect simplicity of the Divine Nature In the midst of judgment he remembers mercy yea he acts it His Sun shines in the midst of this storm Whether he frown or whether he smile it is all to one purpose that he may win the incredulous and disobedient Whither should the rigour of all our censures tend but to edification and not to destruction We are Physicians we are not executioners we give purges to cure and not poisons to kill It is for the just Judge to say one day to reprobate Souls Depart from me in the mean time it is for us to invite all that are spiritually possessed to the participation of mercy Bring him hither to me O Saviour distance was no hindrance to thy work why should the Demoniack be brought to thee Was it that this deliverance might be the better evicted and that the beholders might see it was not for nothing that the Disciples were opposed with so refractory a spirit or was it that the Scribes might be witnesses of that strong hostility that was betwixt thee and that foul spirit and be ashamed of their blasphemous slander or was it that the father of the Demoniack might be quickened in that Faith which now through the suggestion of the Scribes begun to droop when he should hear and see Christ so chearfully to undertake and perform that whereof they had bidden him despair The possessed is brought the Devil is rebuked and ejected That stiffe spirit which stood out boldly against the commands of the Disciples cannot but stoop to the voice of the Master that power which did at first cast him out of Heaven easily dispossesses him of an house of clay The Lord rebuke thee Satan and then thou canst not but flee The Disciples who were not used to these affronts cannot but be troubled at their mis-success Master why could not we cast him out Had they been conscious of any defect in themselves they had never ask'd the question Little did they think to hear of their Unbelief Had they not had great Faith they could not have cast out any Devils had they not had some want of Faith they had cast out this It is possible for us to be defective in some Graces and not to feel it Although not so much their weakness is guilty of this unprevailing as
them that love thee But yet the argument is more forcible from thy love to us since thou hast just reason to respect every thing of thine own more then ought that can proceed from us Even we weak men what can we stick at where we love Thou O infinite God art Love it self Whatever thou hast done for us is out of thy love the ground and motive of all thy mercies is within thy self not in us and if there be ought in us worthy of thy love it is thine own not ours thou givest what thou acceptest Jesus well heard the first groan of his dear Lazarus every short breath that he drew every sigh that he gave was upon account yet this Lord of Life lets his Lazarus sicken and languish and die not out of neglect or impotence but out of power and resolution This sickness is not to death He to whom the issues of death belong knows the way both into it and out of it He meant that sickness should be to death in respect of the present condition not to death in respect of the event to death in the process of Nature not to death in the success of his Divine power that the Son of God might be glorified thereby O Saviour thy usuall style is the Son of man thou that wouldst take up our infirmities wert willing thus to hide thy Godhead under the course weeds of our Humanity but here thou saist That the Son of God might be glorified Though thou wouldst hide thy Divine glory yet thou wouldst not smother it Sometimes thou wouldst have thy Sun break forth in bright gleams to shew that it hath no less light even whilst it seems kept in by the clouds Thou wert now near thy Passion it was most seasonable for thee at this time to set forth thy just title Neither was this an act that thy Humanity could challenge to it self but far transcending all finite powers To die was an act of the Son of man to raise from death was an act of the Son of God Neither didst thou say merely that God but that the Son of God might be glorified God cannot be glorified unless the Son be so In very naturall Relations the wrong or disrespect offered to the child reflects upon the father as contrarily the parent's upon the child how much more where the love and respect is infinite where the whole essence is communicated with the intireness of relation O God in vain shall we tender our Devotions to thee indefinitely as to a glorious and incomprehensible Majesty if we kiss not the Son who hath most justly said Ye believe in the Father believe also in me What an happy family was this I find none upon earth so much honoured Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus It is no standing upon terms of precedency the Spirit of God is not curious in marshalling of places Time was when Mary was confessed to have chosen the better part here Martha is named first as most interessed in Christ's love for ought appears all of them were equally dear Christ had familiarly lodged under their roof How fit was that to receive him whose in-dwellers were hospital pious unanimous Hospital in the glad entertainment of Jesus and his train Pious in their Devotions Unanimous in their mutual Concord As contrarily he balks and hates that house which is taken up with uncharitableness profaneness contention But O Saviour how doth this agree thou lovedst this Family yet hearing of their distress thou heldest off two days more from them Canst thou love those thou regardest not canst thou regard them from whom thou willingly absentest thy self in their necessity Behold thy love as it is above ours so it is oft against ours Even out of very affection art thou not seldom absent None of thine but have sometimes cried How long Lord What need we instance when thine eternal Father did purposely estrange his face from thee so as thou criedst out of forsaking Here thou wouldst knowingly delay whether for the greatning of the Miracle or for the strengthning of thy Disciples Faith Hadst thou gone sooner and prevented the death who had known whether strength of Nature and not thy miraculous power had done it Hadst thou overtaken his death by this quickning visitation who had known whether this had been onely some qualm or ecstasie and not a perfect dissolution Now this large gap of time makes thy work both certain and glorious And what a clear proof was this beforehand to thy Disciples that thou wert able to accomplish thine own Resurrection on the third day who wert able to raise up Lazarus on the fourth The more difficult the work should be the more need it had of an Omnipotent confirmation He that was Lord of our times and his own can now when he found it seasonable say Let us go into Judaea again Why left he it before was it not upon the heady violence of his enemies Lo the stones of the Jews drove him thence the love of Lazarus and the care of his Divine glory drew him back thither We may we must be wise as serpents for our own preservation we must be careless of danger when God calls us to the hazzard It is far from God's purpose to give us leave so far to respect our selves as that we should neglect him Let Judaea be all snares all crosses O Saviour when thou callest us we must put our lives into our hands and follow thee thither This journey thou hast purposed and contrived but what neededst thou to acquaint thy Disciples with thine intent Where didst thou ever besides this make them of counsell with thy voiages Neither didst thou say How think you if I go but Let us go Was it for that thou who knewest thine own strength knewest also their weakness Thou wert resolute they were timorous they were sensible enough of their late perill and fearfull of more there was need to fore-arm them with an expectation of the worst and preparation for it Surprisall with evils may indanger the best constancy The heart is apt to fail when it finds it self intrapped in a sudden mischief The Disciples were dearly affected to Lazarus they had learned to love where their Master loved yet now when our Saviour speaks of returning to that region of perill they pull him by the sleeve and put him in mind of the violence offered unto him Master the Jews of late sought to stone thee and goest thou thither again No less then thrice in the fore-going Chapter did the Jews lift up their hands to murther him by a cruel lapidation Whence was this rage and bloudy attempt of theirs Onely for that he taught them the truth concerning his Divine nature and gave himself the just style of the Son of God How subject carnal hearts are to be impatient of Heavenly verities Nothing can so much fret that malignant spirit which rules in those breasts as that Christ should have his own If we be persecuted