Had Bathsheba beene as meane as Salomon was mightie she had carried away this honour from a gracious sonne Yet for all these due complements Bathsheba goes away with a deniall Reuerence she shall haue she shall not haue a condescent In the acts of Magistracie all regards of naturall relations must giue way That which she propounded as a small request is now after a generall and confused ingagement reiected as vnreasonable It were pittie we should be heard in all our suits Bathsheba makes a petition against her selfe and knowes it not her safetie and life depends vpon Salomons raigne yet she vnwittingly moues for the aduancement of Adonijah Salomon was too dutifull to checke his mother and too wise to yeeld to her In vnfit supplications wee are most heard when we are repelled Thus doth our God many times answer our praiers with mercifull denials and most blesseth vs in crossing our desires Wise Salomon doth not finde himselfe perplexed with the scruple of his promise he that had said Aske on for I will not say thee nay can now sweare God doe so to me and more also if Adonijah haue not spoken this word against his owne life His promise was according to his supposition his supposition was of no other then of a suit honest reasonable expedient now he holds himselfe free from that grant wherein there was at once both sinne and danger No man can be intangled with generall words against his own iust and honest intentions The policies of wicked men befoole them at last this intercession hath vndone Adonijah and in stead of the Throne hastens his graue The sword of Benaiah puts an end to that dangerous riualitie Ioab and Abiatbar still held Champerty with Adonijah Their hand was both in his claime of the kingdome and in the suit for Abishag There are crimes wherein there are no accessories such is this of treason Abiathar may thanke his burden that he liues Had he not borne the Arke of the Lord before Dauid he had not now carried his head vpon his shoulders Had he not beene afflicted with Dauid he had perished with Adonijah now though he were in his owne merit a man of death yet he shall furuiue his partners Get thee to Anathoth vnto thine owne fields The Priesthood of Abiathar as it aggrauated his crime so it shall preserue his life Such honour haue good Princes giuen to the Ministers of the Sanctuarie that their very coate hath beene defence enough against the sword of iustice how much more should it be of proofe against the contempt of base persons Besides his function respect is had to his sufferings The father and brethren of Abiathar were slaine for Dauids sake therefore for Dauids sake Abiathar though worthy of death shall liue He had beene now a dead man if he had not beene formerly afflicted Thus doth our good God deale with vs by the rod he preuents the sword and therefore will not condemne vs for our sinnes because we haue suffered If Abiathar doe not forfait his life yet his office he shall he must change Ierusalem for Anathoth and the Priesthood for a retired priuacie It was fourescore yeeres agoe since the sentence of iudgement was denounced against the house of Eli now doth it come to execution This iust quarrell against Abiathar the last of that line shall make good the threatned iudgement The wickednesse of Elies house was neither purged by sacrifice nor obliterated by time If God pay slowly yet he paies sure Delay of most certaine punishment is neither any hindrance to his iustice nor any comfort to our miseries The execution of Joab and Shimei ABiathar shall liue though he serue not It is in the power of Princes to remit at least those punishments which attend the breach of humane Lawes good reason they should haue power to dispence with the wrongs done to their owne persons The newes of Adonijahs death and Abiathars remouall cannot but affright Ioab who now runnes to Gibeon and takes sanctuary in the Tabernacle of God all his hope of defence is in the hornes of the Altar Fond Ioab hadst thou formerly sought for counsell from the Tabernacle thou hadst not now needed to seeke to it for refuge if thy deuotions had not beene wanting to that Altar thou had'st not needed it for a shelter It is the fashion of our foolish presumption to looke for protection where we haue not cared to yeeld obedience Euen a Ioab clings fast to Gods Altar in his extremity which in his ruffe and welfare hee regarded not The worst men would be glad to make vse of Gods ordinances for their aduantage Necessitie will driue the most profane and lawlesse man to God But what do those bloudie hands touching the holy Altar of God Miserable Ioab what helpe canst thou expect from that sacred pile Those hornes that were besprinkled with the bloud of beasts abhorre to be touched by the bloud of men that Altar was for the expiation of sinne by bloud not for the protection of the sin of bloud If Adonijah fled thither and escaped it is murder that pursues thee more then conspiracie God hath no sanctuary for a wilfull Homicide Yet such respect doth Benaiah giue to that holy place that his Sword is vnwilling to touch him that touches the Altar Those hornes shall put off death for the time and giue protraction of the execution though not preseruation of life How sweet is life euen to those who haue beene prodigall of the bloud of others that Ioab shifts thus to hold it but some few houres Benaiah returnes with Ioabs answer in stead of his head Nay but I will die here as not daring to vnsheath his Sword against a man sheltered in Gods Tabernacle without a new commission Yong Salomon is so well acquainted with the Law of God in such a case that he sticks not at the sentence Hee knew that God had enacted If a man come presumptuously vpon his neighbour to slay him with guile thou shalt take him from mine Altar that hee may die He knew Ioabs murders had not beene more presumptuous then guilefull and therefore he sends Benaiah to take away the offender both from God and men from the Altar and the world No Subiect had merited more then Ioab When proclamation was made in Israel that who euer should smite the Iebusites first he should be the Chiefe and Captaine Ioab was the man When Dauid built some part of Ierusalem Ioab built the rest so as Ierusalem owes it selfe to Ioab both for recouery and reparation No man held so close to Dauid no man was more intent to the weale of Israel none so succesfull in victories yet now is he cald to reckon for his old sinnes and must repay bloud to Amasa and Abner It is not in the power of all our deserts to buy off one sinne either with God or man where life is so deeply forfaited it admits of no redemption The honest simplicity of those times knew not of
sweet varietie healing the diseased raising the dead casting out the Deuill calling in the Publican and shall raise your heart to adore that infinite goodnesse Euery helpe to our deuotion deserues to be precious So much more as the decrepit age of the world declines to an heartlesse coldnesse of pietie That GOD to whose honour these poore labours are meant blesse them in your hands and from them to all Readers To his protection I heartily commend you and the right vertuous Gentlewoman your worthy wife with all the pledges of your happie affection as whom you haue deserued to be Your truly thankfull and officious friend IOS HALL The Widowes Sonne raised THE fauours of our beneficent Sauiour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurions seruant from his bed then he raises the Widowes sonne from his Beere The fruitfull clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bountie of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sunne were fixed in one Orbe yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingrosse the messengers of the Gospell whose errand is vniuersall This immortall seed may not fall all in one furrow The little citie of Nain stood vnder the hill of Hermon neere vnto Tabor but now it is watered with better dewes from aboue the doctrine and miracles of a Sauiour Not for state but for the more euidence of the worke is our Sauiour attended with a large traine So entring into the gate of that walled Citie as if he meant to besiege their faith by his power and to take it His prouidence hath so contriued his iourney that he meets with the sad pompe of a funerall A wofull widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her only sonne to the graue There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flowre in the strength of his age swallowed vp by death Our decrepit age both expects death and solicites it but vigorous youth lookes strangely vpon that grim sergeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather vp with contentment we chide to haue the vnripe vnseasonably beaten downe with cudgells But more a young man the only sonne the only childe of his mother No condition can make it other then grieuous for a well-natu'rd mother to part with her owne bowells yet surely store is some mitigation of losse Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the suruiuing may supplie the comforts of the dead but when all our hopes and ioyes must either liue or die in one the losse 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 Oh daughter of my people gird thee with sack-cloth and wallow thy selfe in the ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely sonne Such was the losse such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor teares can suffice to discouer it Yet more had she beene aided by the counsell and supportation of a louing yoke-fellow this burden might haue seemed lesse intolerable A good husband may make amends for the losse of a sonne had the root beene left to her intire she might better haue spared the branch now both are cut vp all the stay of her life is gone and she seemes abandoned to a perfect miserie And now when she gaue her selfe vp for a forlorne mourner past all capacitie of redresse the God of comfort meets her pitties her relieues her Here was no solicitor but his owne compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a seruant the Ruler for a sonne Iairus for a daughter the neighbours for the Paralyticke here he seekes vp the patient and offers the cure vnrequested Whiles we haue to doe with the Father of mercies our afflictions are the most powerfull suitors No teares no praiers can moue him so much as his owne commiseration Oh God none of our secret sorrowes can be either hid from thine eies or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of helpe then art thou neerest to vs for deliuerance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercie The heart had compassion the mouth said Weepe not the feet went to the Beere the hand touched the coffin the power of the Deitie raised the dead What the heart felt was secret to it selfe the tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weepe not Alas what are words to so strong and iust passions To bid her not to weepe that had lost her only sonne was to perswade her to be miserable and not feele it to feele and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealement doth not remedie but aggrauate sorrow That with the counsell of not weeping therefore she might see cause of not weeping his hand seconds his tongue He arrests the coffin and frees the Prisoner Young man I say vnto thee arise The Lord of life and death speakes with command No finite power could haue said so without presumption or with successe That is the voice that shall one day call vp our vanished bodies from those elements into which they are resolued and raise them out of their dust Neither sea nor death nor hell can offer to detaine their dead when he charges them to be deliuered Incredulous nature what dost thou shrinke at the possibilitie of a resurrection when the God of nature vndertakes it It is no more hard for that almightie Word which gaue being vnto all things to say Let them be repaired then Let them be made I doe not see our Sauiour stretching himselfe vpon the dead corps as Elias and Elisha vpon the sonnes of the Sunamite and Sareptan nor kneeling downe and praying by the Beere as Peter did to Dorcas but I heare him so speaking to the dead as if he were aliue and so speaking to the dead that by the word he makes him aliue I say vnto thee arise Death hath no power to bid that man lie still whom the Sonne of God bids Arise Immediatly he that was dead sate vp So at the sound of the last trumpet by the power of the same voice we shall arise out of the dust and stand vp glorious this mortall shall put on immortalitie this corruptible incorruption This bodie shall not be buried but sowne and at our day shall therefore spring vp with a plentifull increase of glorie How comfortlesse how desperate should be our lying downe if it were not for this assurance of rising And now behold lest our weake faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficultie he hath alreadie by what he hath done giuen vs tastes of what he will doe The power that can raise one man can raise a thousand a million a world no
was still courteous to thy followers affable to sutors plausible to all Israel only to thee he is cruell Wherefore are those armes if the cause of the quarrell must be a motiue of mercy Yet thou saist Deale gently with the young man Absalom for my sake Euen in the holiest Parents nature may be guilty of an iniurious tendernesse of a bloudy indulgence Or whether shall we not rather thinke this was done in type of that vnmeasurable mercy of the true king and redeemer of Israel who prayed for his persecutors for his murderers and euen whiles they were at once scorning and killing him could say Father forgiue them for they know not what they do If we be sonnes we are vngratious we are rebellious yet still is our heauenly Father thus compassionately regardfull of vs Dauid was not sure of the successe there was great inequalitie in the number Absaloms forces were more then double to his It might haue come to the contrary issue that Dauid should haue beene forced to say Deale gently with the father of Absalom but in a supposition of that victorie which only the goodnesse of his cause bade him hope for he saith Deale gently with the young man Absalom as for vs we are neuer but vnder mercy our God needs no aduantages to sweepe vs from the earth any moment yet he continues that life and those powers to vs whereby we prouoke him and bids his Angels deale kindly with vs and beare vs in their armes whiles we lift vp our hands and bend our tongues against heauen O mercie past the comprehension of all finite spirits and only to be conceiued by him whose it is Neuer more resembled by any earthly affection then by this of his Deputie and Type Deale gently with the young man Absalom for my sake The battell is ioyned Dauids followers are but an handfull to Absaloms How easily may the fickle multitude be transported to the wrong side What they wanted in abettors is supplied in the cause Vnnaturall ambition drawes the sword of Absalom Dauids a necessarie and iust defence They that in simplicitie of heart followed Absalom cannot in malice of heart persecute the father of Absalom with what courage could any Israelite draw his sword against a Dauid or on the other side who can want courage to fight for a righteous Soueraigne and father against the conspiracie of a wicked sonne The God of hosts with whom it is all one to saue with many or with few takes part with iustice and lets Israel feele what it is to beare armes for a traiterous vsurper The sword deuoures twentie thousand of them and the wood deuoures more then the sword It must needs be a very vniuersall rebellion wherein so many perished What vertue or merits can assure the hearts of the vulgar when so gracious a Prince findes so many reuolters Let no man looke to prosper by rebellion the very thickets and stakes and pits and wild beasts of the wood shall conspire to the punishment of traitors Amongst the rest see how a fatall oke hath singled out the ring-leader of this hatefull insurrection and will at once serue for his hangman and gallowes by one of those spreading armes snatching him away to speedy execution Absalom was comely and he knew it well enough His haire was no small peece of his beautie nor matter of his pride It was his wont to cut it once a yeere not for that it was too long but too heauie his heart could haue borne it longer if his necke had not complained And now the iustice of God hath platted an halter of those lockes Those tresses had formerly hangd loosely disheueld on his shoulders now he hangs by them He had wont to weigh his haire and was proud to finde it so heauie now his haire poyseth the weight of his bodie and makes his burden his torment It is no maruell if his owne haire turnd traitor to him who durst rise vp against his father That part which is misused by man to sinne is commonly imployed by God to reuenge The reuenge that it worketh for God makes amends for the offence whereto it is drawne against God The very beast wheron Absalom sat as wearie to beare so vnnaturall a burden resignes ouer his lode to the tree of Iustice There hangs Absalom betweene heauen and earth as one that was hated and abandoned both of earth and heauen As if God meant to prescribe this punishment for traitors Absalom Achitophel and Iudas die all one death So let them perish that dare lift vp their hand against Gods anointed The honest souldier sees Absalom hanging in the Oke and dares not touch him his hands were held with the charge of Dauid Beware that none touch the young man Absalom Ioab vpon that intelligence sees him and smites him with no lesse then three darts What the souldier forbore in obedience the Captaine doth in zeale not fearing to preferre his Soueraignes safetie to his command and more tendering the life of a King and peace of his Countrie then the weake affection of a father I dare not sit Iudge betwixt this zeale and that obedience betwixt the captaine and the Souldier the one was a good subiect the other a good Patriot the one loued the King the other loued Dauid and out of loue disobeyed the one meant as well as the other sped As if God meant to fulfill the charge of his Anointed without any blame of his subiects it pleased him to execute that immediate reuenge vpon the rebell which would haue dispatcht him without hand or dart only the Mule and the Oke conspired to this execution but that death would haue required more leasure then it was safe for Israel to giue and still life would giue hope of rescue to cut off all feares Ioab lends the Oke three darts to helpe forward so needfull a worke of iustice All Israel did not afford so firme a friend to Absalom as Ioab had beene who but Ioab had suborned the wittie widow of Tekoah to sue for the recalling of Absalom from his three yeeres exile Who but he went to fetch him from Geshur to Ierusalem Who but he fetcht him from his house at Ierusalem whereto he had beene two yeeres confined to the face to the lips of Dauid Yet now he that was his solicitour for the Kings fauour is his executioner against the Kings charge With honest hearts all respects either of bloud or friendship cease in the case of treason well hath Ioab forgotten himselfe to be friend to him who had forgotten himselfe to be a sonne Euen ciuilly the King is our common father our countrie our common mother nature hath no priuate relations which should not gladly giue place to these He is neither father nor sonne nor brother nor friend that conspires against the common parent Well doth he who spake parables for his masters sonne now speake darts to his Kings enemie and pierces that heart which was false to so good a father
pray thee be against me and against my fathers house The better any man is the more sensible hee is of his owne wretchednesse Many of those Sheepe were Wolues to Dauid What had they done They had done that which was the occasion of Dauids sinne and the cause of their owne punishment But that gracious penitent knew his owne sinne he knew not theirs and therefore can say I haue sinned What haue they done It is safe accusing where we may be boldest and are best acquainted our selues Oh the admirable charitie of Dauid that would haue ingrossed the plague to himselfe and his house from the rest of Israel and sues to interpose himselfe betwixt his people and the vengeance Hee that had put himselfe vpon the pawes of the Beare and Lion for the rescue of his Sheepe will now cast himselfe vpon the sword of the Angell for the preseruation of Israel There was hope in those conflicts in this yeeldance there could be nothing but death Thus didst thou O sonne of Dauid the true and great Shepheard of thy Church offer thy selfe to death for them who had their hands in thy bloud who both procured thy death and deserued their owne Here hee offred himselfe that had sinned for those whom hee professeth to haue not done euill thou that didst no sinne vouchsauedst to offer thy selfe for vs that were all sinne He offered and escaped thou offeredst and diedst and by thy death wee liue and are freed from euerlasting destruction But O Father of all mercies how little pleasure doest thou take in the bloud of sinners it was thine owne pitty that inhibited the destroyer Ere Dauid could see the Angell thou hadst restrayned him It is sufficient hold now thine hand If thy compassion did not both withhold and abridge thy iudgements what place were there for vs out of hell How easie and iust had it been for God to haue made the shutting vp of that third euening red with bloud His goodnesse repents of the slaughter and cals for that Sacrifice wherwith he will be appeased An Altar must bee built in the threshing-floore of Araunah the Iebusite Lo in that very Hill where the Angel held the sword of Abraham from killing his Sonne doth God now hold the Sword of the Angell from killing his people Vpon this very ground shall the Temple after stand heere shall be the holy Altar which shall send vp the acceptable oblations of Gods people in succeeding generations O God what was the threshing-floore of a Iebusite to thee aboue all other soyles What vertue what merit was in this earth As in places so in persons it is not to be heeded what they are but what thou wilt That is worthiest which thou pleasest to accept Rich and bountifull Araunah is ready to meete Dauid in so holy a motion and munificently offers his Sion for the place his Oxen for the Sacrifice his Carts and Ploughes and other Vtensils of his Husbandry for the wood Two franke hearts are well met Dauid would buy Araunah would giue The Iebusite would not sell Dauid will not take Since it was for God and to Dauid Araunah is loth to bargaine Since it was for God Dauid wisheth to pay deare I will not offer burnt Offering to the Lord my God of that which doth cost mee nothing Heroicall spirits doe well become eminent persons Hee that knew it was better to giue then receiue would not receiue but giue There can be no deuotion in a niggardly heart As vnto dainty palates so to the godly soule that tastes sweetest that costs most Nothing is deare enough for the Creator of all things It is an heartlesse piety of those base-minded Christians that care onely to serue God good cheape Contemplations THE SEVENTEENTH BOOKE Adonijah defeated Dauids end and Salomons beginning The execution of Ioab and Shimei Salomons choice with his iudgement vpon the two Harlots The Temple Salomon with the Queene of Sheba Salomons Defection TO MY WORTHILY MVCH HONOVRED FRIEND Sr HENRY MILDMAY Knight Master of the Iewell-house all grace and peace SIR Besides all priuate obligations your very name challengeth from me all due seruices of loue and honour If I haue receiued mercy to beare any fruit next vnder heauen I may thanke the stocke wherein I was ymped which was set by no other then the happie hand of your right Honorable Grandfather How haue I so long forborne the publique Testimonie of my iust gratulations and thankfull respects to so true an heire of his noble vertues Pardon me that I pay this debt so late and accept of this parcell of my well-meant labours Wherein you shall see SALOMON both in his rising and setting his rising hopefull and glorious his declination fearefull You shall see the proofes of his early graces of mercie in sparing ADONIIAH and ABIATHAR of iustice in punishing that riuall of his with IOAB and SHIMEI of wisdome in his award betwixt the two harlots and the administration of his Court and state of pietie in building and hallowing the Temple all dashed in his fall repaired in his repentance I haue no cause to misdoubt either the acceptation or vse of these mine hie pitched thoughts which together with your selfe and your worthy and vertuous Lady I humbly commend to the care and blessing of the hiest who am bound by your worth and merits to be euer Your syncerely and thankfully deuoted in all obseruance IOS HALL Contemplations ADONIJAH Defeated DAVID had not so carefully husbanded his yeeres as to maintaine a vigorous age he was therefore what through warres what with sorrowes what with sicknesse decrepit betimes By that time he was seuentie yeeres old his naturall heate was so wasted that his clothes could not warme him how many haue we knowne of more strength at more age The holiest soule dwells not in an inpregnable fort If the reuenging Angell spared Dauid yet age and Death will not spare him Neither his new altar nor his costly sacrifice can be of force against decay of nature Nothing but death can preuent the weaknesses of age None can blame a people if when they haue a good King they are desirous to hold him Dauids seruants and subiects haue commended vnto his bed a faire young virgin not for the heat of lust but of life that by this meanes they might make an outward supplie of fuell for that vitall fire which was well-neere extinguished with age As it is in the market or the stage so it is in our life One goes in another comes out when Dauid was withering Adonijah was in his blossome That sonne as he was next to Absalom both in the beautie of his body and the time of his birth so was he too like him in practise He also taking aduantage of his fathers infirmitie will be caruing himselfe of the kingdome of Israel That he might no whit vary from his patterne he gets him also Charets and horse-men and fiftie men to run before him These two Absalom and Adonijah were
power can raise one but that which is infinite and that which is infinite admits of no limitation Vnder the old Testament God raised one by Elias another by Elisha liuing a third by Elisha dead By the hand of the Mediator of the new Testament he raised here the sonne of the widow the daughter of Iairus Lazarus and in attendance of his owne resurrection he made a gaole-deliuery of holy prisoners at Ierusalem He raises the daughter of Iairus from her bed this widowes sonne from his coffin Lazarus from his graue the dead saints of Ierusalem from their rottennesse that it might appeare no degree of death can hinder the efficacie of his ouer-ruling command He that keepes the keyes of death cannot only make way for himselfe through the common hall and outer-roomes but through the inwardest and most reserued closets of darknesse Me thinkes I see this young man who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleepe wiping and rubbing those eies that had beene shut vp in death and descending from the Beere wrapping his winding sheet about his loines cast himselfe downe in a passionate thankfulnesse at the feet of his Almightie restorer adoring that diuine power which had commanded his soule backe againe to her forsaken lodging and though I heare not what he said yet I dare say they were words of praise and wonder which his returned soule first vttered It was the mother whom our Sauiour pittied in this act not the sonne who now forced from his quiet rest must twice passe through the gates of death As for her sake therefore he was raised so to her hands was he deliuered that she might acknowledge that soule giuen to her not to the possessor Who cannot feele the amazement and extasie of ioy that was in this reuiued mother when her sonne now salutes her from out of another world And both receiues and giues gratulations of his new life How suddenly were al the tears of that mournfull traine dried vp with a ioyfull astonishment How soone is that funerall banquet turned into a new Birth-day feast What striuing was here to salute the late carcasse of their returned neighbour What awfull and admiring lookes were cast vpon that Lord of life who seeming homely was approued omnipotent How gladly did euery tongue celebrate both the worke and the author A great Prophet is raised vp amongst vs and God hath visited his people A Prophet was the hiest name they could finde for him whom they saw like themselues in shape aboue themselues in power They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh This miracle might well haue assured them of more then a Prophet but he that raised the dead man from the Beere would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the graue of Infidelitie they shall see reason enough to know that the Prophet who was raised vp 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 glorie The Rulers Sonne Cured THE bountie of God so exceedeth mans that there is a contrarietie in the exercise of it We shut our hands because we haue opened them God therefore opens his because he hath opened them Gods mercies are as comfortable in their issue as in themselues Seldome euer doe blessings goe alone where our Sauiour supplied the Bridegroomes wine there he heales the Rulers son He had not in all these coasts of Galilee done any one miracle but here To him that hath shall be giuen We doe not finde Christ oft attended with Nobilitie here he is It was some great Peere or some noted Courtier that was now a suitor to him for his dying sonne Earthly greatnesse is no defence against afflictions We men forbeare the mightie Disease and death know no faces of Lords or Monarkes Could these be bribed they would be too rich why should we grudge not to be priueledged when we see there is no spare of the greatest This noble Ruler listens after Christs returne into Galile The most eminent amongst men will be glad to harken after Christ in their necessitie Happie was it for him that his sonne was sicke he had not else beene acquainted with his Sauiour his soule had continued sicke of ignorance and vnbeleefe Why else doth our good God send vs paine losses opposition but that hee may bee sought to Are we afflicted whither should we goe but to Cana to seeke Christ whither but to the Cana of heauen where our water of sorrow is turned to the wine of gladnesse to that omnipotent Physitian who healeth all our infirmities that we may once say It is good for me that I was afflicted It was about a daies iourney from Capernaum to Cana Thence hither did this Courtier come for the cure of his sonnes feuer What paines euen the greatest can be content to take for bodily health No way is long no labour tedious to the desirous Our soules are sicke of a spirituall feuer labouring vnder the cold fit of infidelitie and the hote fit of selfe-loue and we sit still at home and see them languish vnto death This Ruler was neither faithlesse nor faithfull Had he beene quite faithlesse he had not taken such paines to come to Christ. Had he beene faithfull he had not made this suit to Christ when he was come Come downe and heale my sonne ere he die Come downe as if Christ could not haue cured him absent Ere he die as if that power could not haue raised him being dead how much difference was here betwixt the Centurion and the Ruler That came for his seruant this for his sonne This sonne was not more aboue that seruant then the faith which sued for the seruant surpassed that which sued for the sonne The one can say Master come not vnder my roofe for I am not worthy only speake the word and my seruant shall be whole The other can say Master either come vnder my roofe or my sonne cannot be whole Heale my sonne had beene a good suit for Christ is the only Physitian for all diseases but Come downe and heale him was to teach God how to worke It is good reason that he should challenge the right of prescribing to vs who are euery way his owne it is presumption in vs to stint him vnto our formes An expert workman cannot abide to be taught by a nouice how much lesse shall the all-wise God indure to be directed by his creature This is more then if the patient should take vpon him to giue a Recipe to the Physitian That God would giue vs grace is a beseeming suit but to say Giue it me by prosperitie is a saucie motion As there is faithfulnesse in desiring the end so modestie and patience in referring the meanes to the author In spirituall things God hath acquainted vs with the meanes whereby he will worke euen his owne sacred ordinances Vpon thâ—se because they haue his