others mouths They that knew not the original of that wine yet praised the taste Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine and when men have well drunk then that which is worse but thou hast kept the good wine untill now The same bounty that expressed it self in the quantity of the wine shews it self no less in the excellence Nothing can fall from that Divine hand not exquisite That liberality hated to provide Crab-wine for his guests It was fit that the miraculous effects of Christ which came from his immediate hand should be more perfect then the natural O Blessed Saviour how delicate is that new Wine which we shall one day drink with thee in thy Father's Kingdom Thou shalt turn this Water of our earthly affliction into that Wine of gladness wherewith our souls shall be satiate for ever Make haste O my Beloved and be thou like to a Roe or to a young Hart upon the mountain of spices XII The good Centurion EVen the bloudy trade of War yielded worthy Clients to Christ This Roman Captain had learned to believe in that Jesus whom many Jews despised No Nation no Trade can shut out a good heart from God If he were a forreiner for birth yet he was a domestick in heart He could not change his bloud he could over-rule his affections He loved that Nation which was chosen of God and if he were not of the Synagogue yet he built a Synagogue where he might not be a party he would be a Benefactour Next to being good is a favouring of Goodness We could not love Religion if we utterly wanted it How many true Jews were not so zealous Either will or ability lacked in them whom duty more obliged Good affections do many times more then supply nature Neither doth God regard whence but what we are I do not see this Centurion come to Christ as the Israelitish Captain came to Elias in Carmel but with his cap in his hand with much suit much submission by others by himself He sends first the Elders of the Jews whom he might hope their Nation and Place might make gracious then left the imployment of others might argue neglect he seconds them in person Cold and fruitless are the motions of friends where we do wilfully shut up our own lips Importunity cannot but speed well in both Could we but speak for our selves as this Captain did for his servant what could we possibly want What marvell is it if God be not forward to give where we care not to ask or ask as if we cared not to receive Shall we yet call this a suit or a complaint I hear no one word of intreaty The less is said the more is concealed It is enough to lay open his want He knew well that he had to deal with so wise and mercifull a Physician as that the opening of the maladie was a craving of cure If our spirituall miseries be but confessed they cannot fail of redress Great variety of Suitours resorted to Christ One comes to him for a Son another comes for a Daughter a third for Himself I see none come for his Servant but this one Centurion Neither was he a better man then a Master His Servant is sick he doth not drive him out of doors but lays him at home neither doth he stand gazing by his bed-side but seeks forth He seeks forth not to Witches or Charmers but to Christ He seeks to Christ not with a fashionable relation but with a vehement aggravation of the disease Had the Master been sick the faithfullest Servant could have done no more He is unworthy to be well served that will not sometimes wait upon his followers Conceits of inferiority may not breed in us a neglect of charitable offices So must we look down upon our Servants here on earth as that we must still look up to our Master which is in Heaven But why didst thou not O Centurion rather bring thy Servant to Christ for cure then sue for him absent There was a Paralytick whom Faith and Charity brought to our Saviour and let down through the uncovered roof in his Bed why was not thine so carried so presented Was it out of the strength of thy Faith which assured thee thou neededst not shew thy Servant to him who saw all things One and the same grace may yield contrary effects They because they believed brought the Patient to Christ thou broughtest not thine to him because thou believedst Their act argued no less desire thine more confidence Thy labour was less because thy faith was more Oh that I could come thus to my Saviour and make such moan to him for my self Lord my Soul is sick of Unbelief sick of Self-love sick of inordinate Desires I should not need to say more Thy mercy O Saviour would not then stay by for my suit but would prevent me as here with a gracious ingagement I will come and heal thee I do not hear the Centurion say Either come or heal him The one he meant though he said it not the other he neither said nor meant Christ over-gives both his words and intentions It is the manner of that Divine munificence where he meets with a faithfull Suitour to give more then is requested to give when he is not requested The very insinuations of our necessities are no less violent then successfull We think the measure of humane bounty runs over when we obtain but what we ask with importunity that infinite Goodness keeps within bounds when it overflows the desires of our hearts As he said so he did The word of Christ either is his act or concurs with it He did not stand still when he said I will come but he went as he spake When the Ruler intreated him for his Son Come down ere he die our Saviour stirr'd not a foot The Centurion did but complain of the sickness of his Servant and Christ unasked says I will come and heal him That he might be far from so much as seeming to honour wealth and despise meanness he that came in the shape of a Servant would goe down to the sick Servant's Pallet would not goe to the Bed of the rich Ruler's Son It is the basest motive of respect that ariseth meerly from outward Greatness Either more Grace or more need may justly challenge our favourable regards no less then private Obligations Even so O Saviour that which thou offeredst to doe for the Centurion's Servant hast thou done for us We were sick unto death so far had the dead palsie of Sin overtaken us that there was no life of Grace left in us when thou wert not content to sit still in Heaven and say I will cure them but addedst also I will come and cure them Thy self camest down accordingly to this miserable World and hast personally healed us so as now we shall not die but live and declare thy works O Lord. And oh that we could enough praise that love and mercy which
Principalities and Powers and Governours and Princes of the darkness of this World design other then several ranks of evil Angels There can be no being without some kind of order there can be no order in parity If we look up into Heaven there is the King of Gods the Lord of Lords higher then the highest If to the Earth there are Monarchs Kings Princes Peers People If we look down to Hell there is the Prince of Devils They labour for confusion that call for parity What should the Church doe with such a form as is not exemplified in Heaven in Earth in Hell One Devil according to their supposition may be used to cast out another How far the command of one spirit over another may extend it is a secret of infernal state too deep for the inquiry of men The thing it self is apparent upon compact and precontracted composition one gives way to other for the common advantage As we see in the Commonwealth of Cheaters and Cutpurses one doeth the fact another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution both are of the trade both conspire to the fraud the actour falls not out with the revealer but divides with him that cunning spoil One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work to the inflicting of disease or death another upon agreement for a farther spiritual gain takes him off There is a Devil in both And if there seem more bodily favour there is no less spiritual danger in the latter In the one Satan wins the agent the suitour in the other It will be no cause of discord in Hell that one Devil gives ease to the body which another tormented that both may triumph in the gain of a soul Oh God that any creature which bears thine Image should not abhor to be beholden to the powers of hell for aid for advice Is it not because there is not a God in Israel that men go to inquire of the God of Ekron Can men be so sottish to think that the vowed enemy of their souls can offer them a bait without an hook What evil is there in the City which the Lord hath not done what is there which he cannot as easily redress He wounds he heals again And if he will not it is the Lord let him doe what seems good in his eyes If he do not deliver us he will crown our faithfulness in a patient perseverance The wounds of God are better then are the salves of Satan Was it possible that the wit of Envy could devise so high a Slander Beelzebub was a God of the heathen therefore herein they accuse him for an Idolater Beelzebub was a Devil to the Jews therefore they accuse him for a Conjurer Beelzebub was the chief of Devils therefore they accuse him for an Arch-exorcist for the worst kind of Magician Some professours of this black Art though their work be devillish yet they pretend to doe it in the name of Jesus and will presumptuously seem to doe that by command which is secretly transacted by agreement The Scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil and suppose both a league and familiarity which by the Law of Moses in the very hand of a Saul was no other then deadly Yea so deep doth this wound reach that our Saviour searching it to the bottom finds no less in it then the sin against the Holy Ghost inferring hereupon that dreadfull sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee O Saviour in whom the Prince of this world found nothing what wonder is it if we thy sinfull Servants be branded on all sides with evil tongues Yea which is yet more how plain is it that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart Else this Blasphemy had been onely against the Son of man not against the Holy Ghost but now that the Searcher of hearts finds it to be no less then against the Blessed Spirit of God the spight must needs be obstinate their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience Envy never regards how true but how mischievous So it may gall or kill it cares little whether with truth or falshood For us Blessed are we when men revile us and say all manner of evil of us for the name of Christ For them What reward shall be given to thee thou false tongue Even sharp arrows with hot burning coals yea those very coals of hell from which thou wert enkindled There was yet a third sort that went a mid way betwixt wonder and censure These were not so malicious as to impute the Miracle to a Satanical operation they confess it good but not enough and therefore urge Christ to a farther proof Though thou hast cast out this dumb Devil yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power We have yet seen nothing from thee like those ancient Miracles of the times of our forefathers Joshua caused the Sun to stand still Elias brought fire down from heaven Samuel astonisht the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest If thou wouldst command our belief doe somewhat like to these The casting out of a Devil shews thee to have some power over Hell shew us now that thou hast no less power over Heaven There is a kind of unreasonableness of desire and insatiableness in Infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough This which the Jews over-looked was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity then that which they desired A Devil was more then a Meteor or a parcel of an element to cast out a Devil by command more then to command fire from heaven Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver No son can be more like a father then these Jews to their progenitors in the desart That there might be no fear of degenerating into good they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness First they are weary of the Egyptian bondage and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those furnaces By ten miraculous Plagues they are freed and going out of those confines the Egyptians follow them the Sea is before them now they are more afflicted with their liberty then their servitude The Sea yields way the Egyptians are drowned and now that they are safe on the other shore they tempt the providence of God for water The Rock yields it them then no less for bread and meat God sends them Manna and Quails they cry out of the food of Angels Their present enemies in the way are vanquished they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan Nothing from God but mercy nothing from them but temptations Their true brood both in nature and in sin had abundant proofs of the Messiah if curing the blind lame diseased deaf dumb ejecting Devils over-ruling the elements raising the dead could have been sufficient yet still they must have a sign from Heaven and shut up in
means to fill Hell lothness to displease A good heart will rather fall out with all the world then with God then with his Conscience The mis-grounded sorrow of worldly hearts doth not withhold them from their intended sins It is enough to vex not enough to restrain them Herod was sorry but he sends the Executioner for John's head One act hath made Herod a Tyrant and John a Martyr Herod a Tyrant in that without all legall proceedings without so much as false witnesses he takes off the head of a man of a Prophet It was Lust that carried Herod into Murther The proceedings of sin are more hardly avoided then the entrance Whoso gives himself leave to be wicked knows not where he shall stay John a Martyr in dying for bearing witness to the Truth Truth in life in judgment in doctrine It was the holy purpose of God that he which had baptized with water should now be baptized with bloud Never did God mean that his best children should dwell always upon earth should they stay here wherefore hath he provided Glory above Now would God have John delivered from a double prison of his own of Herod's and placed in the glorious liberty of his sons His head shall be taken off that it may be crowned with glory Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints O happy birth-day not of Herod but of the Baptist Now doth John enter into his joy and in his name is this day ever celebrated of the Church This blessed Fore-runner of Christ said of himself I must decrease He is decreased indeed and now grown shorter by the head but he is not so much decreased in stature as increased in glory For one minute's pain he is possessed of endless joy and as he came before his Saviour into the world so is he gone before him into Heaven The Head is brought in a Charger What a dish was here for a Feast How prodigiously insatiable is the cruelty of a wicked heart O blessed service fit for the table of Heaven It is not for thee O wicked Herod nor for thee malicious and wanton Herodias it is a dish precious and pleasing to the God of Heaven to the blessed Angels who look'd upon that Head with more delight in his constant fidelity then the beholders saw it with horrour and Herodias with contentment of revenge It is brought to Salome as the reward of her dance she presents it to her Mother as the dainty she had longed for Methinks I see how that chast and holy countenance was tossed by impure and filthy hands that true and faithfull tongue those sacred lips those pure eyes those mortified cheeks are now insultingly handled by an incestuous Harlot and made a scorn to the drunken eyes of Herod's guests Oh the wondrous judgments and incomprehensible dispositions of the holy wise Almighty God! He that was sanctified in the womb born and conceived with so much note and miracle What manner of child shall this be lived with so much reverence and observation is now at midnight obscurely murthered in a close prison and his head brought forth to the insultation and irrision of Harlots and Ruffians O God thou knowest what thou hast to doe with thine own Thus thou sufferest thine to be misused and slaughtered here below that thou mayest crown them above It should not be thus if thou didst not mean that their glory should be answerable to their depression XXII The five Loaves and two Fishes WHat flocking there was after Christ which way soever he went How did the Kingdom of Heaven suffer an holy violence in these his followers Their importunity drave him from the land to the sea When he was upon the sea of Tiberias they followed him with their eyes and when they saw which way he bent they followed him so fast on foot that they prevented his landing Whether it were that our Saviour staid some while upon the water as that which yielded him more quietness and freedom of respiration or whether the foot-passage as it oft falls out were the shorter cut by reason of the compasses of the water and the many elbows of the land I inquire not sure I am the wind did not so swiftly drive on the ship as desire and zeal drave on these eager clients Well did Christ see them all the way well did he know their steps and guided them and now he purposely goes to meet them whom he seemed to fly Nothing can please God more then our importunity in seeking him when he withdraws himself it is that he may be more earnestly inquired for Now then he comes to find them whom he made shew to decline and seeing a great multitude he passes from the ship to the shore That which brought him from Heaven to earth brought him also from the sea to land his compassion on their Souls that he might teach them compassion on their Bodies that he might heal and feed them Judaea was not large but populous it could not be but there must be amongst so many men many diseased it is no marvel if the report of so miraculous and universal sanations drew customers They found three advantages of cure above the power and performance of any earthly Physician Certainty Bounty Ease Certainty in that all comers were cured without fail Bounty in that they were cured without charge Ease in that they were cured without pain Far be it from us O Saviour to think that thy Glory hath abated of thy Mercy still and ever thou art our assured bountifull and perfect Physician who healest all our diseases and takest away all our infirmities O that we could have our faithfull recourse to thee in all our spiritual maladies it were as impossible we should want help as that thou shouldst want power and mercy That our Saviour might approve himself every way beneficent he that had filled the Souls of his Auditours with spiritual repast will now fill their Bodies with temporal and he that had approved himself the universal Physician of his Church will now be known to be the great housholder of the world by whose liberal provision mankind is maintained He did not more miraculously heal then he feeds miraculously The Disciples having well noted the diligent and importune attendence of the multitude now towards evening come to their Master in a care of their repast and discharge This is a desart place and the time is now past Send the multitude away that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals How well it becomes even spiritual guides to regard the bodily necessities of God's people This is not directly in our charge neither may we leave our sacred ministration to serve Tables But yet as the bodily father must take care for the Soul of his child so must the spiritual have respect to the Body This is all that the world commonly looks after measuring their Pastours more by their dishes then by their doctrine or conversation
be bidden to walk unto Christ he thought of the waters Bid me to come to thee on the waters he thought not on the winds which raged on those waters or if he thought of a stiff gale yet that tempestuous and sudden gust was out of his account and expectation Those evils that we are prepared for have not such power over us as those that surprise us A good water-man sees a dangerous billow coming towards him and cuts it and mounts over it with ease the unheedy is overwhelmed O Saviour let my haste to thee be zealous but not improvident ere I set my foot out of the ship let me foresee the Tempest when I have cast the worst I cannot either miscarry or complain So soon as he began to fear he began to sink whilst he believed the Sea was brass when once he began to distrust those waves were water He cannot sink whilst he trusts the power of his Master he cannot but sink when he misdoubts it Our Faith gives us as courage and boldness so success too our Infidelity lays us open to all dangers to all mischiefs It was Peter's improvidence not to foresee it was his weakness to fear it was the effect of his fear to sink it was his Faith that recollects it self and breaks through his Infidelity and in sinking could say Lord save me His foot could not be so swift in sinking as his heart in imploring he knew who could uphold him from sinking and being sunk deliver him and therefore he says Lord save me It is a notable both sign and effect of true Faith in sudden extremities to ejaculate holy desires and with the wings of our first thoughts to fly up instantly to the throne of Grace for present succour Upon deliberation it is possible for a man that hath been careless and profane by good means to be drawn to holy dispositions but on the sudden a man will appear as he is what-ever is most rife in the heart will come forth at the mouth It is good to observe how our surprisals find us the rest is but forced this is natural Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh O Saviour no evil can be swifter then my thought my thought shall be upon thee ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief at least if I over-run not evils I shall overtake them It was Christ his Lord whom Peter had offended in distrusting it is Christ his Lord to whom he sues for deliverance His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge O God when we have displeased thee when we have sunk in thy displeasure whither should we fly for aid but to thee whom we have provoked Against thee onely is our sin in thee onely is our help In vain shall all the powers of Heaven and Earth conspire to relieve us if thou withhold from our succour As we offend thy Justice daily by our sins so let us continually rely upon thy Mercy by the strength of our Faith Lord save us The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him He doth not say Hadst thou trusted me I would have safely preserved thee but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly diffidence sink and drown but rather as pitying the infirmity of his fearfull Disciple he puts out the hand for his relief That hand hath been stretch'd forth for the aid of many a one that hath never ask'd it never any ask'd it to whose succour it hath not been stretched With what speed with what confidence should we fly to that sovereign bounty from which never any suitour was sent away empty Jesus gave Peter his hand but withall he gave him a check O thou of little faith why doubtedst thou As Peter's Faith was not pure but mixed with some distrust so our Saviour's help was not clear and absolute but mixed with some reproof A reproof wherein there was both a censure and an expostulation a censure of his Faith an expostulation for his Doubt both of them sore and heavy By how much more excellent and usefull a grace Faith is by so much more shamefull is the defect of it and by how much more reason here was of confidence by so much more blame-worthy was the Doubt Now Peter had a double reason of his confidence the command of Christ the power of Christ the one in bidding him to come the other in sustaining him whilst he came To misdoubt him whose will he knew whose power he felt was well worth a reprehension When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters I could not but wonder at his great Faith yet behold ere he can have measured many paces the Judge of hearts taxes him for little Faith Our mountains are but moats to God Would my heart have served me to dare the doing of this that Peter did Durst I have set my foot where he did O Saviour if thou foundest cause to censure the weakness and poverty of his Faith what mayest thou well say to mine They mistake that think thou wilt take up with any thing Thou lookest for firmitude and vigour in those Graces which thou wilt allow in thy best Disciples no less then truth The first steps were confident there was fear in the next Oh the sudden alteration of our affections of our dispositions One pace varies our spiritual condition What hold is there of so fickle creatures if we be left never so little to our selves As this lower world wherein we are is the region of mutability so are we the living pieces of it subject to a perpetual change It is for the blessed Saints and Angels above to be fixed in good Whilst we are here there can be no constancy expected from us but in variableness As well as our Saviour loves Peter yet he chides him It is the fruit of his favour and mercy that we escape judgment not that we escape reproof Had not Peter found grace with his Master he had been suffered to sink in silence now he is saved with a check There may be more love in frowns then in smiles Whom he loves he chastises What is chiding but a verbal castigation and what is chastisement but a real chiding Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury O let the righteous God smite me when I offend with his gracious reproofs these shall be a precious oyl that shall not break my head XXIV The Bloudy issue healed THE time was O Saviour when a worthy woman offered to touch thee and was forbidden now a meaner touches thee with approbation and â—ncouragement Yet as there was much difference in that body of thine which was the Object of that touch being now mortal and passible then impassible and immortal so there was in the Agents this a stranger that a familiar this obscure that famous The same actions vary with time and other circumstances and accordingly receive their dislike or
Jewess and therefore well knew that her touch was in this case no better then a pollution as hers perhaps but not of him For on the one side Necessity is under no positive law on the other the Son of God was not capable of impurity Those may be defiled with a touch that cannot heal with a touch he that was above Law is not comprised in the Law Be we never so unclean he may heal us we cannot infect him O Saviour my Soul is sick and foul enough with the Spirituall impurities of sin let me by the hand of Faith lay hold but upon the hem of thy garment thy Righteousness is thy garment it shall be both clean and whole Who would not think but a man might lade up a dish of water out of the Sea unmissed Yet that water though much is finite those drops are within number that Art which hath reckoned how many corns of sand would make up a World could more easily compute how many drops of water would make up an Ocean Whereas the mercies of God are absolutely infinite and beyond all possibility of proportion And yet this bashfull soul cannot steal one drop of mercy from this endless boundless bottomless Sea of Divine bounty but it is felt and questioned And Jesus said Who touched me Who can now say that he is a poor man that reckons his store when that God who is rich in mercy doth so He knows all his own Blessings and keeps just tallies of our receits delivered so much Honour to this man to that so much Wealth so much Knowledge to one to another so much Strength How carefully frugal should we be in the notice account usage of God's several favours since his bounty sets all his gifts upon the file Even the worst servant in the Gospel confest his Talents though he imployed them not We are worse then the worst if either we misknow or dissemble or forget them Who now can forbear the Disciples reply Who touched thee O Lord the multitude Dost thou ask of one when thou art pressed by many In the midst of a throng dost thou ask Who touched me Yea but yet some one touched me All thronged me but one touched me How riddle-like soever it may seem to sound they that thronged me touched me not she onely touched me that thronged me not yea that touched me not Even so O Saviour others touched thy body with theirs she touched thy hem with her hand thy Divine power with her Soul Those two parts whereof we consist the bodily the spiritual do in a sort partake of each other The Soul is the Man and hath those parts senses actions which are challenged as proper to the Body This spiritual part hath both an hand and a touch it is by the hand of Faith that the Soul toucheth yea this alone both is and acts all the spiritual senses of that immaterial and Divine part this sees hears tasteth toucheth God and without this the Soul doeth none of these All the multitude then pressed Christ he took not that for a touch since Faith was away onely she touched him that believed to receive virtue by his touch Outward fashionableness comes into no account with God that is onely done which the Soul doeth It is no hoping that virtue should go forth from Christ to us when no hearty desires go forth from us to him He that is a Spirit looks to the deportment of that part which resembleth himself as without it the body is dead so without the actions thereof bodily Devotions are but carkasses What reason had our Saviour to challenge this touch Some body touch'd me The multitude in one extreme denied any touch at all Peter in another extreme affirmed an over-touching of the multitude Betwixt both he who felt it can say Some body touched me Not all as Peter not none as the multitude but some body How then O Saviour how doth it appear that some body touch'd thee For I perceive virtue is gone out from me The effect proves the act virtue gone out evinces the touch These two are in thee convertible virtue cannot go out of thee but by a touch and no touch can be of thee without virtue going out from thee That which is a Rule in Nature That every Agent works by a contact holds spiritually too Then dost thou O God work upon our Souls when thou touchest our hearts by thy Spirit then do we re-act upon thee when we touch thee by the hand of our Faith and confidence in thee and in both these virtue goes out from thee to us Yet goes not so out as that there is less in thee In all bodily emanations whose powers are but finite it must needs follow that the more is sent forth the less is reserved but as it is in the Sun which gives us light yet loseth none ever the more the luminosity of it being no whit impaired by that perpetual emission of lightsome beams so much more is it in thee the Father of lights Virtue could not go out of thee without thy knowledge without thy sending Neither was it in a dislike or in a grudging exprobration that thou saidst Virtue is gone out from me Nothing could please thee better then to feel virtue fetch'd out from thee by the Faith of the receiver It is the nature and praise of good to be communicative none of us would be other then liberal of our little if we did not fear it would be lessened by imparting Thou that knowest thy store so infinite that participation doth onely glorifie and not diminish it canst not but be more willing to give then we to receive If we take but one drop of water from the Sea or one corn of sand from the shore there is so much though insensibly less but were we capable of Worlds of virtue and benediction from that munificent hand our inriching could no whit impoverish thee Thou which wert wont to hold it much better to give then to receive canst not but give gladly Fear not O my Soul to lade plentifully at this Well this Ocean of Mercy which the more thou takest overflows the more But why then O Saviour why didst thou thus inquire thus expostulate Was it for thy own sake that the glory of the Miracle might thus come to light which otherwise had been smothered in silence Was it for Jairus his sake that his depressed heart might be raised to a confidence in thee whose mighty Power he saw proved by this Cure whose Omniscience he saw proved by the knowledge of the Cure Or was it chiefly for the Woman's sake for the praise of her Faith for the securing of her Conscience It was within her self that she said If I may but touch none could hear this voice of the heart but he that made it It was within her self that the Cure was wrought none of the beholders knew her complaint much less her recovery none noted her touch none knew the occasion of her