that Christ who gives us these blessings who is given to us in them This seemed too great an honour for the modesty of John to receive If his mother could say when her Blessed Cousin the Virgin Mary came to visit her Whence is this to me that the Mother of my Lord should come to me how much more might he say so when the Divine Son of that mother came to call for a favour from him I have need to be baptized of thee and comest thou to me O holy Baptist if there were not a greater born of woman than thou yet thou couldst not be born of a woman and not need to be baptized of thy Saviour He baptized with fire thou with water Little would thy water have availed thee without his fire If he had not baptized thee how wert thou sanctified from the womb There can be no flesh without filthiness Neither thy supernatural conception nor thy austere life could exempt thee from the need of Baptism Even those that have not lived to sin after the similitude of Adam yet are they so tainted with Adam that unless the Second Adam cleanse them by his Baptism they are hopeless There is no less use of Baptism unto all then there is certainty of the need of Baptism John baptized without Christ within The more holy a man is the more sensible he is of his unholiness No carnal man could have said I have need to be baptized of thee neither can he find what he is the better for a little Font-water The sense of our wretchedness and the valuation of our spiritual helps is the best trial of our Regeneration Our Saviour doth not deny that either John hath need to be baptized of him or that it is strange that he should come to be baptized of John but he will needs thus far both honour John and disparage himself to be baptized of his Messenger He that would take flesh of the Virgin education from his Parents sustenance from his creatures will take Baptism from John It is the praise of his mercy that he will stoop so low as to be beholden to his creatures which from him receive their being and power both to take and give Yet not so much respect to John as obedience to his Father drew him to this point of Humiliation Thus it behoves us to fulfill all righteousness The Counsels and Appointments of God are Righteousness it self There needs no other motive either to the Servant or the Son then the knowledge of those righteous purposes This was enough to lead a faithfull man through all difficulties and inconveniencies neither will it admit of any reply or any demur John yieldeth to this honour which his Saviour puts upon him in giving Baptism to the Authour of it He baptized others to the remission of their sins now he baptizes him by whom they are remitted both to the Baptizer and to others No sooner is Christ baptized then he comes forth of the water The element is of force but during the use it turns common when that is past Neither is the water sooner poured on his head then the Heavens are opened and the Holy Ghost descendeth upon that head which was baptized The Heavens are never shut whiles either of the Sacraments is duly administred and received Neither do the Heavens ever thus open without the descent of the Holy Ghost But now that the God of Heaven is baptized they open unto him which are opened to all the faithfull by him and that Holy Ghost which proceeded from him together with the Father joyns with the Father in a sensible testimony of him that now the world might see what interest he had in the Heavens in the Father in the Holy Spirit and might expect nothing but divine from the entrance of such a Mediator IX Christ Tempted NO sooner is Christ come out of the water of Baptism then he enters into the fire of Temptation No sooner is the Holy Spirit descended upon his head in the form of a Dove then he is led by the Spirit to be tempted No sooner doth God say This is my Son then Satan says If thou be the Son of God It is not in the power either of the gift or seals of Grace to deliver us from the assaults of Satan They may have the force to repell evil suggestions they have none to prevent them Yea the more we are ingaged unto God by our publick vows and his pledges of favour so much more busie and violent is the rage of that Evil one to encounter us We are no sooner stept forth into the field of God then he labours to wrest our weapons out of our hands or to turn them against us The voice from Heaven acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God this Divine Testimony did not allay the malice of Satan but exasperate it Now that venomous Serpent swells with inward poison and hasts to assail him whom God hath honoured from Heaven O God how should I look to escape the suggestions of that Wicked one when the Son of thy love cannot be free when even Grace it self draws on enmity That enmity that spared not to strike at the head will it forbear the weakest and remotest limb Arm thou me therefore with an expectation of that evil I cannot avoid Make thou me as strong as he is malicious Say to my soul also Thou art my Son and let Satan doe his worst All the time of our Saviour's obscurity I do not find him set upon Now that he looks forth to the publick execution of his Divine Office Satan bends his forces against him Our privacy perhaps may sit down in peace but never man did endeavour a common good without opposition It is a sign that both the Work is holy and the Agent faithfull when we meet with strong affronts We have reason to be comforted with nothing so much as with resistence If we were not in a way to do good we should find no rubs Satan hath no cause to molest his own and that whilst they go about his own service He desires nothing more then to make us smooth paths to sin but when we would turn our feet to holiness he blocks up the way with Temptations Who can wonder enough at the sawciness of that bold Spirit that dares to set upon the Son of the everliving God Who can wonder enough at thy meekness and patience O Saviour that wouldst be tempted He wanted not malice and presumption to assault thee thou wantedst not humility to endure those assaults I should stand amazed at this voluntary dispensation of thine but that I see the susception of our humane nature lays thee open to this condition It is necessarily incident to manhood to be liable to Temptations Thou wouldest not have put on Flesh if thou hadst meant utterly to put off this consequence of our infirmity If the state of innocence could have been any defence against evil motions the First Adam had not been tempted much
us O give me to thirst after those waters which thou promisest what-ever become of those waters which thou wouldst want The time was when craving water of the Samaritan thou gavest better then that thou askedst Oh give me to thirst after that more precious Water and so do thou give me of that water of life that I may never thirst again Blessed God! how marvellously dost thou contrive thine own affairs Thine enemies whilst they would despight thee shall unwittingly justifie thee and convince themselves As thou fore-saidst In thy thirst they gave thee vinegar to drink Had they given thee Wine thou hadst not taken it the night before thou hadst taken leave of that comfortable liquour resolving to drink no more of that sweet juice till thou shouldst drink it new with them in thy Father's Kingdom Had they given thee Water they had not fulfilled that prediction whereby they were self-condemned I know not now O dear Jesu whether this last draught of thine were more pleasing to thee or more distastfull Distastfull in it self for what liquour could be equally harsh pleasing that it made up those Sufferings thou wert to endure and those Prophecies thou wert to fulfill Now there is no more to doe thy full consummation of all predictions of all types and ceremonies of all sufferings of all satisfactions is happily both effected and proclaimed nothing now remains but a voluntary sweet and Heavenly resignation of thy Blessed Soul into the hands of thine eternall Father and a bowing of thine head for the change of a better Crown and a peaceable obdormition in thy bed of ease and honour and an instant entrance into rest triumph Glory And now O Blessed Jesu how easily have carnall eyes all this while mistaken the passages and intentions of this thy last and most glorious work Our weakness could hitherto see nothing here but pain and ignominy now my better-inlightned eyes see in this elevation of thine both honour and happiness Lo thou that art the Mediatour betwixt God and man the Reconciler of Heaven and earth art lift up betwixt earth and Heaven that thou mightest accord both Thou that art the great Captain of our Salvation the conquerour of all the adverse powers of Death and Hell art exalted upon this Triumphall Chariot of the Cross that thou mightest trample upon Death and drag all those Infernall Principalities manicled after thee Those Arms which thine enemies meant violently to extend are stretched forth for the imbracing of all mankind that shall come in for the benefit of thine all-sufficient redemption Even whilst thou sufferest thou reignest Oh the impotent madness of silly men They think to disgrace thee with wrie faces with tongues put out with bitter scoffs with poor wretched indignities when in the mean time the Heavens declare thy righteousness O Lord and the Earth shews forth thy power The Sun pulls in his light as not abiding to see the Sufferings of his Creatour the Earth trembles under the sense of the wrong done to her Maker the Rocks rend the veil of the Temple tears from the top to the bottom shortly all the frame of the world acknowledges the dominion of that Son of God whom Man despised Earth and Hell have done their worst O Saviour thou art in thy Paradise and triumphest over the malice of men and Devils The remainders of thy Sacred person are not yet free The Souldiers have parted thy garments and cast lots upon thy seamless coat Those poor spoils cannot so much inrich them as glorifie thee whose Scriptures are fulfilled by their barbarous sortitions The Jews sue to have thy bones divided but they sue in vain No more could thy garments be whole then thy body could be broken One inviolable Decree over-rules both Foolish executioners ye look up at that crucified Body as if it were altogether in your power and mercy nothing appears to you but impotence and death little do ye know what an irresistible guard there is upon that Sacred corps such as if all the powers of Darkness shall band against they shall find themselves confounded In spite of all the gates of Hell that word shall stand Not a bone of him shall be broken Still the infallible Decree of the Almighty leads you on to his own ends through your own ways Ye saw him already dead whom ye came to dispatch those bones therefore shall be whole which ye had had no power to break But yet that no piece either of your cruelty or of Divine prediction may remain unsatisfied he whose Bones may not be impaired shall be wounded in his flesh he whose Ghost was yielded up must yield his last bloud One of the souldiers with a spear pierced his side and forthwith there came out bloud and water Malice is wont to end with life here it over-lives it Cruell man what means this so late wound what commission hadst thou for this bloudy act Pilate had given leave to break the bones of the living he gave no leave to goar the side of the dead what wicked superrerogation is this what a superfluity of maliciousness To what purpose did thy spear pierce so many hearts in that one why wouldst thou kill a dead man Methinks the Blessed Virgin and those other passionate associates of hers and the Disciple whom Jesus loved together with the other of his fellows the friends and followers of Christ and especially he that was so ready to draw his sword upon the troup of his Master's apprehenders should have work enough to contain themselves within the bounds of patience at so savage a stroke their sorrow could not chuse but turn to indignation and their hearts could not but rise as even mine doth now at so impertinent a villany How easily could I rave at that rude hand But O God when I look up to thee and consider how thy holy and wise Providence so overrules the most barbarous actions of men that besides their will they turn beneficiall I can at once hate them and bless thee This very wound hath a mouth to speak the Messiah ship of my Saviour and the truth of thy Scripture They shall look at him whom they have pierced Behold now the Second Adam sleeping and out of his side formed the Mother of the living the Evangelicall Church Behold the Rock which was smitten and the waters of life gushed forth Behold the fountain that is set open to the house of David for sin and for uncleanness a fountain not of water onely but of bloud too O Saviour by thy water we are washed by thy bloud we are redeemed Those two Sacraments which thou didst institute alive flow also from thee dead as the last memorialls of thy Love to thy Church the Water of Baptism which is the laver of Regeneration the Bloud of the new Testament shed for remission of sins and these together with the Spirit that gives life to them both are the three Witnesses on earth whose attestation cannot fail us O precious
Virgin carried in it any taint of Adam that was scoured away by sanctification in the womb and yet the Son would be circumcised and the Mother purified He that came to be sin for us would in our persons be legally unclean that by satisfying the Law he might take away our uncleanness Though he were exempted from the common condition of our birth yet he would not deliver himself from those ordinary rites that implied the weaknesse and blemishes of Humanity He would fulfill one Law to abrogate it another to satisfie it He that was above the Law would come under the Law to free us from the Law Not a day would be changed either in the Circumcision of Christ or the Purification of Mary Here was neither convenience of place nor of necessaries for so painfull a work in the Stable of Bethlehem yet he that made and gave the Law will rather keep it with difficulty then transgresse it with ease Why wouldest thou O Blessed Saviour suffer that sacred Foreskin to be cut off but that by the power of thy Circumcision the same might be done to our Souls that was done to thy Body We cannot be therefore thine if our hearts be uncircumcised Doe thou that in us which was done to thee for us cut off the superfluitie of our maliciousnesse that we may be holy in and by thee which for us wert content to be legally impure There was shame in thy Birth there was pain in thy Circumcision After a contemptible welcome into the world that a sharp Rasour should passe through thy skin for our sakes which can hardly endure to bleed for our own it was the praise of thy wonderfull mercy in so early Humiliation What pain or contempt should we refuse for thee that hast made no spare of thy self for us Now is Bethlehem left with too much honour there is Christ born adored circumcised No sooner is the Blessed Virgin either able or allowed to walk then she travels to Jerusalem to perform her holy Rites for her self for her Son to purifie her self to present her Son She goes not to her own house at Nazareth she goes to God's House at Jerusalem If Purifying were a shadow yet Thanksgiving is a substance Those whom God hath blessed with fruit of body and safety of deliverance if they make not their first journey to the Temple of God they partake more of the Unthankfullnesse of Eve then Marie's Devotion Her forty days therefore were no sooner out then Mary comes up to the holy City The rumour of a new King born at Bethlehem was yet fresh at Jerusalem since the report of the Wise men and what good news had this been for any pick-thank to carry to the Court Here is the Babe whom the Star signified whom the Sages inquired for whom the Angels proclaimed whom the Shepherds talkt of whom the Scribes and High priests notified whom Herod seeks after Yet unto that Jerusalem which was troubled at the report of his Birth is Christ come and all tongues are so lockt up that he which sent from Jerusalem to Bethlehem to seek him finds him not who as to countermine Herod is come from Bethlehem to Jerusalem Dangers that are aloof off and but possible may not hinder us from the duty of our Devotion God saw it not yet time to let loose the fury of his adversaries whom he holds up like some eager mastives and then onely lets goe when they shall most shame themselves and glorifie him Well might the Blessed Virgin have wrangled with the Law and challenged an immunity from all ceremonies of Purification What should I need purging which did not conceive in sin This is for those mothers whose births are unclean mine is from God which is purity it self The Law of Moses reaches onely to those women which have conceived seed I conceived not this seed but the Holy Ghost in me The Law extends to the mothers of those sons which are under the Law mine is above it But as one that cared more for her peace then her privilege and more desired to be free from offence then from labour and charge she dutifully fulfills the Law of that God whom she carried in her womb and in her arms like the Mother of him who though he knew the children of the Kingdome free yet would pay tribute unto Caesar like the Mother of him whom it behoved to fulfill all righteousnesse And if she were so officious in Ceremonies as not to admit of any excuse in the very Circumstance of her Obedience how much more strict was she in the main Duties of morality That Soul is fit for the Spirituall conception of Christ that is conscioanbly scrupulous in observing all God's Commandments whereas he hates all alliance to a negligent or froward Heart The Law of Purification proclaims our Uncleannesse The mother is not allowed after her child-birth to come unto the Sanctuary or to touch any hallowed thing till her set time be expired What are we whose very birth infects the mother that bears us At last she comes to the Temple but with Sacrifices either a Lamb and a Pigeon or Turtle or in the meaner estate two Turtle-doves or young Pigeons whereof one is for a Burnt-offering the other for a Sin-offering the one for Thanksgiving the other for Expiation for expiation of a double sin of the mother that conceived of the child that was conceived We are all born sinners and it is a just question whether we do more infect the world or the world us They are grosse flatterers of nature that tell her she is clean If our lives had no sin we bring enough with us the very infant that lives not to sin as Adam yet sinned in Adam and is sinfull in himself But oh the unspeakable mercy of our God! we provide the Sin he provides the Remedy Behold an Expiation well-near as early as our Sin the bloud of a young Lamb or Dove yea rather the bloud of Him whose innocence was represented by both cleanseth us presently from our filthinesse First went Circumcision then came the Sacrifice that by two holy acts that which was naturally unholy might be hallowed unto God Under the Gospell our Baptism hath the force of both it does away our corruption by the Water of the Spirit it applies to us the Sacrifice of Christ's Bloud whereby we are cleansed Oh that we could magnifie this goodnesse of our God which hath not left our very infancy without redresse but hath provided helps whereby we may be delivered from the danger of our hereditary evils Such is the favourable respect of our wise God that he would not have us undoe our selves with Devotion the service he requires of us is ruled by our abilities Every poor mother was not able to bring a Lamb for her offering there was none so poor but might procure a pair of Turtles or Pigeons These doth God both prescribe and accept from poorer hands no lesse then the beasts of a thousand
be our strong helper that hath not given us over to be a prey unto their teeth Or if some scope have been given to that envious one to afflict us hath it been with favourable limitations it is thine onely mercy O God that hath chained and muzzled up this band-dog so as that he may scratch us with his paws but cannot pierce us with his fangs Far far is this from our deserts who had too well merited a just abdication from thy favour and protection and an interminable seisure by Satan both in soul and body Neither do I here see more matter of thanks to our God for our immunity from the external injuries of Satan then occasion of serious inquiry into his power over us for the spiritual I see some that think themselves safe from this ghostly tyranny because they sometimes find themselves in good moods free from the suggestions of gross sins much more from the commission Vain men that feed themselves with so false and frivolous comforts will they not see Satan through the just permission of God the same to the Soul in mental possessions that he is to the Body in corporal The worst Demoniack hath his lightsome respites not ever tortured not ever furious betwixt whiles he might look soberly talk sensibly move regularly It is a wofull comfort that we sin not always There is no Master so barbarous as to require of his Slave a perpetual unintermitted toil yet though he sometimes eat sleep rest he is a vassal still If that Wicked one have drawn us to a customary perpetration of evil and have wrought us to a frequent iteration of the same sin this is gage enough for our servitude matter enough for his tyranny and insultation He that would be our Tormentour always cares onely to be sometimes our Tempter The possessed is bound as with the invisible fetters of Satan so with the material chains of the inhabitants What can bodily force prevail against a spirit Yet they endeavour this restraint of the man whether out of charity or justice charity that he might not hurt himself justice that he might not hurt others None do so much befriend the Demoniack as those that bind him Neither may the spiritually possessed be otherwise handled for though this act of the enemy be plausible and to appearance pleasant yet there is more danger in this dear and smiling tyranny Two sorts of chains are fit for outrageous sinners good Laws unpartial Executions that they may not hurt that they may not be hurt to eternal death These iron chains are no sooner fast then broken There was more then an humane power in this disruption It is not hard to conceive the utmost of nature in this kind of actions Sampson doth not break the cords and ropes like a thread of tow but God by Sampson The man doth not break these chains but the Spirit How strong is the arm of these evil angels how far transcending the ordinary course of nature They are not called Powers for nothing What flesh and bloud could but tremble at the palpable inequality of this match if herein the mercifull protection of our God did not the rather magnifie it self that so much strength met with so much malice hath not prevailed against us In spite of both we are in safe hands He that so easily brake the iron fetters can never break the adamantine chain of our Faith In vain do the chafing billows of Hell beat upon that Rock whereon we are built And though these brittle chains of earthly metall be easily broken by him yet the sure tempered chain of God's eternal Decree he can never break That Almighty Arbiter of Heaven and Earth and Hell hath chained him up in the bottomless pit and hath so restrained his malice that but for our good we cannot be tempted we cannot be foiled but for a glorious victory Alas it is no otherwise with the spiritually possessed The chains of restraint are commonly broken by the fury of wickedness What are the respects of civility fear of God fear of men wholsome laws carefull executions to the desperately licentious but as cobwebs to an hornet Let these wild Demoniacks know that God hath provided chains for them that will hold even everlasting chains under darkness These are such as must hold the Devils themselves their Masters unto the judgment of the great Day how much more those impotent Vassals Oh that men would suffer themselves to be bound to their good behaviour by the sweet and easie recognizances of their duty to their God and the care of their own souls that so they might rather be bound up in the bundle of life It was not for rest that these chains were torn off but for more motion This prisoner runs away from his friends he cannot run away from his Jaolour He is now carried into the Wilderness not by meer external force but by internal impulsion carried by the same power that unbound him for the opportunity of his tyranny for the horrour of the place for the affamishment of his body for the avoidance of all means of resistence Solitary Desarts are the delights of Satan It is an unwise zeal that moves us to doe that to our selves in an opinion of merit and holiness which the Devil wishes to doe to us for a punishment and conveniency of temptation The evil Spirit is for solitariness God is for society He dwells in the assembly of his Saints yea there he hath a delight to dwell Why should not we account it our happiness that we may have leave to dwell where the Authour of all happiness loves to dwell There cannot be any misery incident unto us whereof our gracious Redeemer is not both conscious and sensible Without any intreaty therefore of the miserable Demoniack or suit of any friend the God of spirits takes pity of his distress and from no motion but his own commands the evil Spirit to come out of the man O admirable precedent of mercy preventing our requests exceeding our thoughts forcing favours upon our impotence doing that for us which we should and yet cannot desire If men upon our instant solicitations would give us their best aid it were a just praise of their bounty but it well became thee O God of mercy to go without force to give without suit And do we think thy goodness is impaired by thy glory If thou wert thus commiserative upon earth art thou less in Heaven How dost thou now take notice of all our complaints of all our infirmities how doth thine infinite pity take order to redress them What evil can befall us which thou knowest not feelest not relievest not How safe are we that have such a Guardian such a Mediatour in Heaven Not long before had our Saviour commanded the winds and waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues superiority He onely is
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
of all the Followers of Christ gave so pregnant testimonies upon all occasions of his Faith of his Love to his Master as Peter The rest were silent whilst he both owned his Master and craved access to him in that liquid way Yet what a sensible mixture is here of Faith and Distrust It is Faith that said Master it was Distrust as some have construed it that said If it be thou It was Faith that said Bid me come to thee implying that his word could as well enable as command it was Faith that durst step down upon that watery pavement it was Distrust that upon the sight of a mighty wind feared It was Faith that he walked it was Distrust that he sunk it was Faith that said Lord save me Oh the imperfect composition of the best Saint upon earth as far from pure Faith as from meer Infidelity If there be pure earth in the center all upward is mixed with the other elements contrarily pure Grace is above in the glorified Spirits all below is mixed with infirmity with corruption Our best is but as the Air which never was never can be at once fully enlightned neither is there in the same Region one constant state of light It shall once be noon with us when we shall have nothing but bright beams of Glory now it is but the dawning wherein it is hard to say whether there be more light then darkness We are now fair as the Moon which hath some spots in her greatest beauty we shall be pure as the Sun whose face is all bright and glorious Ever since the time that Adam set his tooth in the Apple till our mouth be full of mould it never was it never can be other with us Far be it from us to settle willingly upon the dregs of our Infidelity far be it from us to be disheartned with the sense of our defects and imperfections We believe Lord help our unbelief Whilst I find some disputing the lawfulness of Peter's suit others quarrelling his If it be thou let me be taken up with the wonder at the Faith the fervour the Heroicall valour of this prime Apostle that durst say Bid me come to thee upon the waters He might have suspected that the Voice of his Master might have been as easily imitated by that imagined Spirit as his Person he might have feared the blustering tempest the threatning billows the yielding nature of that devouring element but as despising all these thoughts of misdoubt such is his desire to be near his Master that he says Bid me come to thee upon the waters He says not Come thou to me this had been Christ's act and not his Neither doth he say Let me come to thee this had been his act and not Christ's Neither doth he say Pray that I may come to thee as if this act had been out of the power of either But Bid me come to thee I know thou canst command both the waves and me me to be so light that I shall not bruise the moist surface of the waves the waves to be so solid that they shall not yield to my weight All things obey thee Bid me come to thee upon the waters It was a bold spirit that could wish it more bold that could act it No sooner hath our Saviour said Come then he sets his foot upon the unquiet Sea not fearing either the softness or the roughness of that uncouth passage We are wont to wonder at the courage of that daring man who first committed himself to the Sea in a frail Bark though he had the strength of an oaken planck to secure him how valiant must we needs grant him to be that durst set his foot upon the bare sea and shift his paces Well did Peter know that he who bade him could uphold him and therefore he both sues to be bidden and ventures to be upholden True Faith tasks it self with difficulties neither can it be dismaied with the conceits of ordinary impossibilities It is not the scattering of straws or casting of mole-hills whereby the virtue of it is described but removing of mountains Like some courageous Leader it desires the honour of a danger and sues for the first onset whereas the worldly heart freezes in a lazy or cowardly fear and onely casts for safety and ease Peter sues Jesus bids Rather will he work Miracles then disappoint the suit of a faithfull man How easily might our Saviour have turned over this strange request of his bold Disciple and have said What my Omnipotence can doe is no rule for thy Weakness It is no less then presumption in a meer man to hope to imitate the miraculous works of God and man Stay thou in the ship and wonder contenting thy self in this that thou hast a Master to whom the land and water is alike Yet I hear not a Check but a Call Come The suit of Ambition is suddenly quashed in the Mother of the Zebedees The suits of Revenge prove no better in the mouth of the two fiery Disciples But a suit of Faith though high and seemingly unfit for us he hath no power to deny How much less O Saviour wilt thou stick at those things which lie in the very road of our Christianity Never man said Bid me to come to thee in the way of thy commandments whom thou didst not both bid and inable to come True Faith rests not in great and good desires but acts and executes accordingly Peter doth not wish to go and yet stand still but his foot answers his tongue and instantly chops down upon the waters To sit still and wish is for sluggish and cowardly spirits Formal volitions yea velleities of good whilst we will not so much as step out of the ship of our Nature to walk unto Christ are but the faint motions of vain Hypocrisie It will be long enough ere the gale of good wishes can carry us to our Heaven Ease slayeth the foolish O Saviour we have thy command to come to thee out of the ship of our natural corruption Let no Sea affray us let no Tempest of Temptation withhold us No way can be but safe when thou art the End Lo Peter is walking upon the waves two hands uphold him the hand of Christ's Power the hand of his own Faith neither of them would doe it alone The hand of Christ's Power laid hold on him the hand of his Faith laid hold on the power of Christ commanding Had not Christ's hand been powerfull that Faith had been in vain Had not that Faith of his strongly fixed upon Christ that Power had not been effectual to his preservation Whilst we are here in the world we walk upon the waters still the same hands bear us up If he let goe his hold of us we drown if we let goe our hold of him we sink and shreek as Peter did here who when he saw the wind boistrous was afraid and beginning to sink cried saying Lord save me When he wisht to
and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisedom but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murther They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholsome and blessed is that Zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by Wisedom and Charity Wisedom to avoid rashness and excess Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not privileged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instinct or special command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to find fault with the errours of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with God's own hand I find him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitours and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitableness cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal mind slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of bloud Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwind or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate God's Saints in singular actions must see they go upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with his O Saviour when we look into those sacred Acts and monuments of thine we find many a life which thou preservedst from perishing some that had perished by thee recalled never any by thee destroyed Onely one poor fig-tree as the reall Emblem of thy severity to the unfruitfull was blasted and withered by thy curse But to man how ever favourable and indulgent wert thou So repelled as thou wert so reviled so persecuted laid for sold betrayed apprehended arraigned condemned crucified yet what one man didst thou strike dead for these hainous indignities Yea when one of thine enemies lost but an ear in that ill quarrel thou gavest that ear to him who came to take life from thee I find some whom thou didst scourge and correct as the sacrilegious money-changers none whom thou killedst Not that thou either lovest not or requirest not the duly severe execution of justice Whose sword is it that Princes bear but thine Offenders must smart and bleed This is a just sequel but not the intention of thy coming thy will not thy drift Good Princes make wholsome Laws for the well-ordering of their people there is no authority without due coercion The violation of these good Laws is followed with death whose end was preservation life order and this not so much for revenge of an offence past as for prevention of future mischief How can we then enough love and praise thy mercy O thou preserver of men How should we imitate thy saving and beneficent disposition towards mankind as knowing the more we can help to save the nearer we come to thee that camest to save all and the more destructive we are the more we resemble him who is Abaddon a murtherer from the beginning XXVII The Ten Lepers THE Samaritans were tainted not with Schism but Heresie but Paganism our Saviour yet balks them not but makes use of the way as it lies and bestows upon them the courtesie of some Miracles Some kind of commerce is lawfull even with those without Terms of intireness and leagues of inward amity are here unfit unwarrantable dangerous but civil respects and wise uses of them for our convenience or necessity need not must not be forborn Ten Lepers are here met those that
thou stylest them thy Brethren O admirable Humility O infinite Mercy How dost thou raise their titles with thy self At first they were thy Servants then Disciples a little before thy death they were thy Friends now after thy Resurrection they were thy Brethren Thou that wert exalted infinitely higher from mortall to immortall descendest so much lower to call them Brethren who were before Friends Disciples Servants What do we stand upon the terms of our poor inequality when the Son of God stoops so low as to call us Brethren But oh Mercy without measure Why wilt thou how canst thou O Saviour call them Brethren whom in their last parting thou foundst fugitives Did they not run from thee did not one of them rather leave his inmost coat behind him then not be quit of thee did not another of them deny thee yea abjure thee and yet thou saist Goe tell my Brethren It is not in the power of the sins of our infirmity to unbrother us when we look at the acts themselves they are hainous when at the persons they are so much more faulty as more obliged but when we look at the mercy of thee who hast called us now Who shall separate us When we have sinned thy dearness hath reason to aggravate our sorrows but when we have sorrowed our Faith hath no less reason to uphold us from despairing Even yet we are Brethren Brethren in thee O Saviour who art ascending for us in thee who hast made thy Father ours thy God our God He is thy Father by eternall Generation our Father by his gracious Adoption thy God by Unity of Essence our God by his Grace and Election It is this propriety wherein our life and happiness consisteth They are weak comforts that can be raised from the apprehension of thy generall Mercies What were I the better O Saviour that God were thy Father if he be not mine Oh do thou give me a particular sense of my interest in thee and thy goodness to me Bring thou thy self home to me and let me find that I have a God and Saviour of my own It is fit I should mark thy order First my Father then yours Even so Lord He is first thine and in thine onely right ours It is in thee that we are adopted it is in thee that we are elected without thee God is not onely a stranger but an enemy to us Thou onely canst make us free thou onely canst make us Sons Let me be found in thee and I cannot fail of a Father in Heaven With what joy did Mary receive this errand with what joy did the Disciples welcome it from her Here was good news from a far Country even as far as the utmost regions of Death Those Disciples whose flight scattered them upon their Master's apprehension are now at night like a dispersed Covy met together by their mutuall call their assembly is secret when the light was shut in when the doors were shut up Still were they fearfull still were the Jews malicious The assured tidings of their Master's Resurrection and Life hath filled their hearts with joy and wonder Whilst their thoughts and speech are taken up with so happy a subject his miraculous and sudden presence bids their senses be witnesses of his reviving and their happiness When the doors were shut where the Disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews came Jesus and stood in the midst and said Peace be unto you O Saviour how thou camest in thither I wonder I inquire not I know not what a Glorified body can doe I know there is nothing that thou canst not doe Had not thine entrance been recorded for strange and supernaturall why was thy standing in the midst noted before thy passage into the room why were the doors said to be shut whilst thou earnest in why were thy Disciples amazed to see thee ere they heard thee Doubtless they that once before took thee for a Spirit when thou didst walk upon the waters could not but be astonished to see thee whilst the doors were barred without any noise of thine entrance to stand in the midst well might they think thou couldst not thus be there if thou wert not the God of Spirits There might seem more scruple of thy realty then of thy power and therefore after thy wonted greeting thou shewest them thy hands and thy feet stamped with the impressions of thy late sufferings Thy respiration shall argue the truth of thy life Thou breathest on them as a Man thou givest them thy Spirit as a God and as God and Man thou sendest them on the great errand of thy Gospel All the mists of their doubts are now dispelled the Sun breaks out clear They were glad when they had seen the Lord. Had they known thee for no other then a meer man this re-appearance could not but have affrighted them since till now by thine Almighty power this was never done that the long-since dead rose out of their graves and appeared unto many But when they recounted the miraculous works that thou hadst done and thought of Lazarus so lately raised thine approved Deity gave them confidence and thy presence joy We cannot but be losers by our absence from holy Assemblies Where wert thou O Thomas when the rest of that Sacred Family were met together Had thy fear put thee to so long a flight that as yet thou wert not returned to thy fellows or didst thou suffer other occasions to detain thee from this happiness Now for the time thou missedst that Divine breath which so comfortably inspired the rest now thou art suffered to fall into that weak distrust which thy presence had prevented They told thee We have seen the Lord was not this enough would no eyes serve thee but thy own were thy ears to no use for thy Faith Except I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side I will not believe Suspicious man who is the worse for that whose is the loss if thou believe not Is there no certainty but in thine own senses Why were not so many and so holy eyes and tongues as credible as thine own hands and eyes How little wert thou yet acquainted with the ways of Faith Faith comes by hearing These are the tongues that must win the whole world to an assent and durst thou the first man detrect to yield Why was that word so hard to pass Had not that thy Divine Master foretold thee with the rest that he must be crucified and the third day rise again Is any thing related to be done but that which was fore-promised any thing beyond the sphere of Divine Omnipotence Go then and please thy self in thine over-wise incredulity whilst thy fellows are happy in believing It is a whole week that Thomas rests in this sullen unbelief in all which time doubtless his ears were beaten with the many constant assertions of the holy