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
not weeping his Hand seconds his Tongue He arrests the Coffin and frees the Prisoner Young man I say unto thee Arise the Lord of life and death speaks with command No finite power could have said so without presumption or with success That is the voice that shall one day call up our vanished bodies from those elements into which they are resolved and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detain their dead when he charges them to be delivered Incredulous nature what dost thou shrink at the possibility of a Resurrection when the God of nature undertakes it It is no more hard for that Almighty Word which gave being unto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I do not see our Saviour stretching himself upon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha upon the Sons of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling down and praying by the Bier as Peter did to Dorcas but I hear him so speaking to the dead as if he were alive and so speaking to the dead that by the word he makes him alive I say unto thee Arise Death hath no power to bid that man lie still whom the Son of God bids Arise Immediatly he that was dead sate up So at the sound of the last Trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand up glorious this mortal shall put on immortality this corruptible incorruption This body shall not be buried but sown and at our day shall therefore spring up with a plentifull increase of glory How comfortless how desperate should be our lying down if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weak faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty he hath already by what he hath done given us tasts of what he will doe The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world No power can raise one man but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation Under the Old Testament God raised one by Elias another by Elisha living a third by Elisha dead By the hand of the Mediatour of the New Testament he raised here the son of the Widow the daughter of Jairus Lazarus and in attendence of his own Resurrection he made a Gaol-delivery of holy Prisoners at Jerusalem He raises the daughter of Jairus from her Bed this Widow's son from his Coffin Lazarus from his Grave the dead Saints of Jerusalem from their Rottenness that it might appear no degree of death can hinder the efficacy of his over-ruling command He that keeps the keys of death cannot onely make way for himself through the common Hall and outer rooms but through the inwardest and most reserved closets of darkness Methinks I see this young man who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleep wiping and rubbing those eyes that had been shut up in death and descending from the Bier wrapping his winding-sheet about his loins cast himself down in a passionate thankfulness at the feet of his Almighty Restorer adoring that Divine power which had commanded his soul back again to her forsaken lodging and though I hear not what he said yet I dare say they were words of praise and wonder which his returned soul first uttered It was the Mother whom our Saviour pitied in this act not the Son who now forced from his quiet rest must twice pass through the gates of death As for her sake therefore he was raised so to her hands was he delivered that she might acknowledge that soul given to her not to the possessour Who cannot feel the amazement and ecstasie of joy that was in this revived mother when her son now salutes her from out of another world and both receives and gives gratulations of his new life How suddenly were all the tears of that mournfull train dried up with a joyfull astonishment How soon is that Funeral-banquet turned into a new Birth-day-feast What striving was here to salute the late carkass of their returned neighbour What awfull and admiring looks were cast upon that Lord of life who seeming homely was approved Omnipotent How gladly did every tongue celebrate both the work and the authour A great Prophet is raised up amongst us and God hath visited his people A Prophet was the highest name they could find for him whom they saw like themselves in shape above themselves in power They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh This Miracle might well have assured them of more then a Prophet but he that raised the dead man from the Bier would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the grave of Infidelity They shall see reason enough to know that the Prophet who was raised up to them was the God that now visited them and at last should doe as much for them as he had done for the young man raise them from death to life from dust to glory XIV The Ruler's Son cured THE Bounty of God so exceedeth man's that there is a contrariety in the exercise of it We shut our hands because we opened them God therefore opens his because he hath opened them God's mercies are as comfortable in their issue as in themselves Seldome ever do blessings go alone Where our Saviour supplied the Bride-groom's Wine there he heals the Ruler's Son He had not in all these coasts of Galilee done any Miracle but here To him that hath shall be given We do not find Christ oft attended with Nobility here he is It was some great Peer or some noted Courtier that was now a suitour to him for his dying Son Earthly Greatness is no defence against Afflictions We men forbear the mighty Disease and Death know no faces of Lords or Monarchs Could these be bribed they would be too rich Why should we grudge not to be privileged when we see there is no spare of the Greatest This noble Ruler listens after Christ's return into Galilee The most eminent amongst men will be glad to hearken after Christ in their necessity Happy was it for him that his Son was sick he had not else been acquainted with his Saviour his Soul had continued sick of ignorance and unbelief Why else doth our good God send us pain losses opposition but that he may be sought to Are we afflicted whither should we go but to Cana to seek Christ whither but to the Cana of Heaven where our water of sorrow is turned to the wine of gladness to that Omnipotent Physician who healeth all our infirmities that we may once say It is good for me that I was afflicted It was about a day's journey from Capernaum to Cana Thence hither did this Courtier come for the cure of his Son's Fever What pains even the greatest can be content to take for bodily health No way is long no labour tedious to the desirous Our Souls are sick of a spiritual fever
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
hurt me it may refresh me to carry this cool Snake in my bosome O then my dear Saviour I bless thee for thy Death but I bless thee more for thy Resurrection That was a work of wonderfull Humility of infinite Mercy this was a work of infinite Power In that was humane Weakness in this Divine Omnipotence In that thou didst die for our sins in this thou didst rise again for our Justification And now how am I conformable to thee if when thou art risen I lie still in the grave of my Corruptions How am I a lim of thy body if whilst thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whilst thou art alive and glorious I lie rotting in the dust of death I know the locomotive faculty is in the Head by the power of the Resurrection of thee our Head all we thy Members cannot but be raised As the earth cannot hold my Body from thee in the day of the Second Resurrection so cannot sin withhold my Soul from thee in the First How am I thine if I be not risen and if I be risen with thee why do I not seek the things above where thou sittest at the right hand of God The Vault or Cave which Joseph had hewn out of the rock was large capable of no less then ten persons upon the mouth of it Eastward was that great stone rolled within it at the right hand in the North part of the Cave was hewn out a receptacle for the body three handfulls high from the pavement and a stone was accordingly fitted for the cover of that Grave Into this Cave the good Women finding the stone rolled away descended to seek the body of Christ and in it saw the Angels This was the Goal to which Peter and John ran finding the spoils of death the grave-cloaths wrapped up and the napkin that was about the head folded up together and laid in a place by it self and as they came in haste so they return'd with wonder I marvell not at your speed O ye blessed Disciples if upon the report of the Women ye ran yea flew upon the wings of zeal to see what was become of your Master Ye had wont to walk familiarly together in the attendence of your Lord now society is forgotten and as for a wager each tries the speed of his legs and with neglect of other vies who shall be first at the Tomb. Who would not but have tried masteries with you in this case and have made light touches of the earth to have held paces with you Your desire was equall but John is the younger his lims are more nimble his breath more free he first looks into the Sepulcher but Peter goes down first O happy competition who shall be more zealous in the enquiry after Christ Ye saw enough to amaze you not enough to settle your Faith How well might you have thought Our Master is not subduced but risen Had he been taken away by others hands this fine linen had not been left behind Had he not himself risen from this bed of earth he had not thus wrapped up his night-cloaths and laid them sorted by themselves What can we doubt when he foretold us he would rise O Blessed Jesu how wilt thou pardon our errours how should we pardon and pity the errours of each other in lesser occasions when as yet thy prime and dearest Disciples after so much Divine instruction knew not the Scriptures that thou must rise again from the dead They went away more astonished then confident more full of wonder as yet then of belief There is more strength of zeal where it takes in the weaker Sex Those holy Women as they came first so they staid last especially devout Mary Magdalene stands still at the mouth of the Cave weeping Well might those tears have been spared if her Knowledge had been answerable to her Affection her Faith to her Fervour Withall as our eye will be where we love she stoops and looks down into that dear Sepulcher Holy desires never but speed well There she sees two glorious Angels the one sitting at the head the other at the feet where the body of Jesus had lain Their shining brightness shew'd them to be no mortall creatures besides that Peter and John had but newly come out of the Sepulcher and both found and left it empty in her sight which was now suddenly filled with those celestiall guests That white linen wherewith Joseph had shrouded the Sacred Body of Jesus was now shamed with a brighter whiteness Yet do I not find the good Woman ought appalled with that inexpected glory So was her heart taken up with the thought for her Saviour that she seemed not sensible of whatsoever other Objects Those tears which she did let drop into the Sepulcher send up back to her the voice of those Angels Woman why weepest thou God and his Angels take notice of every tear of our Devotion The sudden wonder hath not dried her eyes nor charmed her tongue She freely confesseth the cause of her grief to be the missing of her Saviour They have taken away my Lord and I know not where they have laid him Alas good Mary how dost thou lose thy tears of whom dost thou complain but of thy best friend who hath removed thy Lord but himself who but his own Deity hath taken away that humane body out of that region of death Neither is he now laid any more he stands by thee whose removall thou complainest of Thus many a tender and humbled Soul afflicts it self with the want of that Saviour whom it hath and feeleth not Sense may be no judge of the bewailed absence of Christ Do but turn back thine eye O thou Religious Soul and see Jesus standing by thee though thou knewest not that it was Jesus His habit was not his own Sometimes it pleases our Saviour to appear unto his not like himself his holy disguises are our trialls Sometimes he will seem a Stranger sometimes an Enemy sometimes he offers himself to us in the shape of a poor man sometimes of a distressed captive Happy is he that can discern his Saviour in all forms Mary took him for a Gardener Devout Magdalene thou art not much mistaken As it was the trade of the First Adam to dress the Garden of Eden so was it the trade of the Second to tend the Garden of his Church He digs up the soil by seasonable afflictions he sows in it the seeds of Grace he plants it with gracious motions he waters it with his Word yea with his own Bloud he weeds it by wholsome censures O Blessed Saviour what is it that thou neglectest to doe for this selected inclosure of thy Church As in some respect thou art the true Vine and thy Father the Husbandman so also in some other we are the Vine and thou art the Husbandman Oh be thou such to me as thou appearedst unto Magdalene break up the fallows of my Nature
of our neglect It is not more the shame of Israel then the glory of the Centurion that our Saviour says I have not found so great faith in Israel Had Israel yielded any equall faith it could not have been unespied of these All-seeing eyes yet though their Helps were so much greater their Faith was less and God never gives more then he requires Where we have laid our Tillage and Compost and Seed who would not look for a Crop but if the uncultured Fallow yield more how justly is that unanswerable ground near to a curse Our Saviour did not mutter this censorious testimony to himself not whisper it to his Disciples but he turned him about to the people and spake it in their ears that he might at once work their shame and emulation In all other things except spirituall our self-love makes us impatient of equalls much less can we endure to be out-stripped by those who are our professed inferiours It is well if any thing can kindle in us holy ambitions Dull and base are the spirits of that man that can abide to see another overtake him in the way and out-run him to Heaven He that both wrought this Faith and wondred at it doth now reward it Go thy ways and as thou hast believed so be it unto thee Never was any Faith unseen of Christ never was any seen without allowance never was any allowed without remuneration The measure of our receits in the matter of favour is the proportion of our belief The infinite Mercy of God which is ever like it self follows but one rule in his gift to us the Faith that he gives us Give us O God to believe and be it to us as thou wilt it shall be to us above that we will The Centurion sues for his Servant and Christ says So be it unto thee The Servant's health is the benefit of the Master and the Master's Faith is the health of the Servant And if the Prayers of an earthly Master prevailed so much with the Son of God for the recovery of a Servant how shall the intercession of the Son of God prevail with his Father in Heaven for us that are his impotent Children and Servants upon Earth What can we want O Saviour whilst thou suest for us He that hath given thee for us can deny thee nothing for us can deny us nothing for thee In thee we are happy and shall be glorious To thee O thou mighty Redeemer of Israel with thine Eternal Father together with thy Blessed Spirit one God infinite and incomprehensible be given all Praise Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen XIII The Widow's Son raised THE favours of our beneficent Saviour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurion's Servant from his Bed then he raises the Widow's Son from his Bier The fruitfull clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sun were fixed in one Orb yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingross the Messengers of the Gospel whose errand is universal This immortal Seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood under the hill of Hermon near unto Tabor but now it is watered with better dews from above the Doctrine and Miracles of a Saviour Not for state but for the more evidence of the work is our Saviour attended with a large train so entering into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their Faith by his Power and to take it His providence hath so contrived his journey that he meets with the sad pomp of a Funeral A wofull Widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely Son to the grave There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flower in the strength of his age swallowed up by death Our decrepit age both expects death and solicits it but vigorous youth looks strangely upon that grim Serjeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather up with contentment we chide to have the unripe unseasonably beaten down with cudgels But more a young man the onely Son the onely Child of his mother No condition can make it other then grievous for a well-natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of loss Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the surviving may supply the comforts of the dead But when all our hopes and joys must either live or die in one the loss of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable he can but say O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloath and wallow thy self in ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son Such was the loss such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor tears can suffice to discover it Yet more had she been aided by the counsel and supportation of a loving Yoke-fellow this burthen might have seemed less intolerable A good Husband may make amends for the loss of a Son Had the Root been left to her intire she might better have spared the Branch now both are cut up all the stay of her life is gone and she seems abandoned to a perfect misery And now when she gave her self up for a forlorn mourner past all capacity of redress the God of comfort meets her pities her relieves her Here was no Solicitour but his own Compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a Servant the Ruler for a Son Jairus for a Daughter the neighbours for the Paralytick here he seeks the Patient and offers the Cure unrequested Whilst we have to doe with the Father of mercies our Afflictions are the most powerfull suitours No tears no prayers can move him so much as his own commiseration O God none of our secret sorrows can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of help then art thou nearest to us for deliverance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The Heart had compassion the Mouth said Weep not the Feet went to the Bier the Hand touched the Coffin the power of the Deity raised the dead What the Heart felt was secret to it self the Tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weep not Alas what are words to so strong and just passions To bid her not to weep that had lost her onely Son was to perswade her to be miserable and not feel it to feel and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealment doth not remedy but aggravate sorrow That with the counsel of not weeping therefore she might see cause of