whom ye serve not he whom ye tempt onely in this shall he be approved your Master that he shall pay your wages and give you your portion with hypocrites The act of Adultery was her crime to be taken in the very act was no part of her sin but the proof of her just conviction yet her deprehension is made an aggravation of her shame Such is the corrupt judgement of the world To doe ill troubles not men but to be taken in doing it unknown filthiness passeth away with ease it is the notice that perplexes them not the guilt But O foolish sinners all your packing and secrecy cannot so contrive it but that ye shall be taken in the manner your Conscience takes you so the God of Heaven takes you so and ye shall once find that your Conscience is more then a thousand witnesses and God more then a thousand Consciences They that complain of the act urge the punishment Now Moses in the Law commanded us that such should be stoned Where did Moses bid so Surely the particularity of this execution was without the book Tradition and custome enacted it not the Law Indeed Moses commanded death to both the offenders not the manner of death to either By analogy it holds thus It is flatly commanded in the case of a Damsell betrothed to an Husband and found not to be a Virgin in the case of a Damsell betrothed who being defiled in the city cried not Tradition and custome made up the rest obtaining out of this ground that all Adulterers should be executed by lapidation The ancienter punishment was burning death always though in divers forms I shame to think that Christians should slight that sin which both Jews and Pagans held ever deadly What a mis-citation is this Moses commanded The Law was God's not Moses's If Moses were imployed to mediate betwixt God and Israel the Law is never the more his He was the hand of God to reach the Law to Israel the hand of Israel to take it from God We do not name the water from the pipes but from the spring It is not for a true Israelite to rest in the second means but to mount up to the supreme originall of justice How reverent soever an opinion was had of Moses he cannot be thus named without a shamefull undervaluing of the royall Law of his Maker There is no mortall man whose authority may not grow into contempt that of the ever-living God cannot but be ever sacred and inviolable It is now with the Gospel as it was then with the Law the word is no other then Christ's though delivered by our weakness whosoever be the Crier the Proclamation is the King 's of Heaven Whilst it goes for ours it is no marvell if it lie open to despight How captious a word is this Moses said thus what saiest thou If they be not sure that Moses said so why do they affirm it and if they be sure why do they question that which they know decided They would not have desired a better advantage then a contradiction to that received Law-giver It is their profession We are Moses's disciples and We know that God spake to Moses It had been quarrel enough to oppose so known a Prophet Still I find it the drift of the enemies of truth to set Christ and Moses together by the ears in the matter of the Sabbath of Circumcision of Marriage and Divorce of the use of the Law of Justification by the Law of the sense and extent of the Law and where not But they shall never be able to effect it they two are fast and indissoluble friends on both parts for ever each speaks for other each establishes other they are subordinate they cannot be opposite Moses faithfull as a servant Christ as a Son A faithfull servant cannot but be officious to the Son The true use we make of Moses is to be our Schoolmaster to teach us to whip us unto Christ the true use we make of Christ is to supply Moses By him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the law of Moses Thus must we hold in with both if we will have our part in either So shall Moses bring us to Christ and Christ to glory Had these Pharisees out of simplicity and desire of resolution in a case of doubt moved this question to our Saviour it had been no less commendable then now it is blame-worthy O Saviour whither should we have recourse but to thine Oracle Thou art the Word of the Father the Doctour of the Church Whilst we hear from others What say Fathers what say Councils let them hear from us What sayest thou But here it was far otherwise they came not to learn but to tempt and to tempt that they might accuse Like their Father the Devil who solicits to sin that he may plead against us for yieldance Fain would these colloguing adversaries draw Christ to contradict Moses that they might take advantage of his contradiction On the one side they saw his readiness to tax the false glosses which their presumptuous Doctours had put upon the Law with an I say unto you on the other they saw his inclination to mercy and commiseration in all his courses so far as to neglect even some circumstances of the Law as to touch the Leper to heal on the Sabbath to eat with known sinners to dismiss an infamous but penitent offender to select and countenance two noted Publicans and hereupon they might perhaps think that his compassion might draw him to cross this Mosaical institution What a crafty bait is here laid for our Saviour Such as he cannot bite at and not be taken It seems to them impossible he should avoid a deep prejudice either to his justice or mercy For thus they imagine Either Christ will second Moses in sentencing this woman to death or else he will cross Moses in dismissing her unpunished If he command her to be stoned he loses the honour of his clemency and Mercy if he appoint her dismission he loses the honour of his Justice Indeed strip him of either of these and he can be no Saviour O the cunning folly of vain men that hope to beguile Wisedom it self Silence and neglect shall first confound those men whom after his answer will send away convicted In stead of opening his mouth our Saviour bows his body and in stead of returning words from his lips writes characters on the ground with his finger O Saviour I had rather silently wonder at thy gesture then inquire curiously into the words thou wrotest or the mysteries of thus writing onely herein I see thou meantest to shew a disregard to these malicious and busy cavillers Sometimes taciturnity and contempt are the best answers Thou that hast bidden us Be wise as serpents givest us this noble example of thy prudence It was most safe that these tempters should be thus kept fasting with a silent disrespect that
thee as our Reconciler and as the eternall Son of thy Father to adore thee The light caused wonder in the Disciples but the voice astonishment They are all fallen down upon their faces Who can blame a mortall man to be thus affected with the voice of his Maker Yet this word was but plausible and hortatory O God how shall flesh and bloud be other then swallowed up with the horrour of thy dreadfull sentence of death The Lion shall roar who shall not be afraid How shall those who have slighted the sweet voice of thine invitations call to the rocks to hide them from the terrour of thy Judgments The God of mercies pities our infirmities I do not hear our Saviour say Ye lay sleeping one while upon the earth now ye lie astonished Ye could neither wake to see nor stand to hear now lie still and tremble But he graciously touches and comforts them Arise fear not That voice which shall once raise them up out of the earth might well raise them up from it That hand which by the least touch restored sight lims life might well restore the spirits of the dismaied O Saviour let that sovereign hand of thine touch us when we lie in the trances of our griefs in the bed of our securities in the grave of our sins and we shall arise They looking up saw no man save Jesus alone and that doubtless in his wonted form All was now gone Moses Elias the Cloud the Voice the Glory Tabor it self cannot be long blessed with that Divine light and those shining guests Heaven will not allow to earth any long continuance of Glory Onely above is constant Happiness to be look'd for and injoyed where we shall ever see our Saviour in his unchangeable brightness where the light shall never be either clouded or varied Moses and Elias are gone onely Christ is left The glory of the Law and the Prophets was but temporary yea momentany that onely Christ may remain to us intire and conspicuous They came but to give testimony to Christ when that is done they are vanished Neither could these raised Disciples find any miss of Moses and Elias when they had Christ still with them Had Jesus been gone and left either Moses or Elias or both in the Mount with his Disciples that presence though glorious could not have comforted them Now that they are gone and he is left they cannot be capable of discomfort O Saviour it matters not who is away whilst thou art with us Thou art God all-sufficient what can we want when we want not thee Thy presence shall make Tabor it self an Heaven yea Hell it self cannot make us miserable with the fruition of thee XXXII The Woman taken in Adultery WHat a busie life was this of Christ's He spent the night in the mount of Olives the day in the Temple whereas the night is for a retired repose the day for company His retiredness was for prayer his companiableness was for preaching All night he watches in the Mount all the morning he preaches in the Temple It was not for pleasure that he was here upon earth his whole time was penall and toilsome How do we resemble him if his life were all pain and labour ours all pastime He found no such fair success the day before The multitude was divided in their opinion of him messengers were sent and suborned to apprehend him yet he returns to the Temple It is for the sluggard or the coward to plead a Lion in the way upon the calling of God we must overlook and contemn all the spight and opposition of men Even after an ill harvest we must sow and after denialls we must woe for God This Sun of Righteousness prevents that other and shines early with wholsome doctrines upon the Souls of his hearers The Auditory is both thronged and attentive Yet not all with the same intentions If the people came to learn the Scribes and Pharisees came to cavill and carp at his teaching With what a pretence of zeal and justice yet do they put themselves into Christ's presence As lovers of Chastity and Sanctimony and haters of Uncleanness they bring to him a Woman taken in the flagrance of her Adultery And why the Woman rather since the Man's offence was equall if not more because he should have had more strength of resistence more grace not to tempt Was it out of necessity Perhaps the man knowing his danger made use of his strength to shift away and violently brake from his apprehenders Or was it out of cunning in that they hoped for more likely matter to accuse Christ in the case of the woman then of the man for that they supposed his mercifull disposition might more probably incline to compassionate her weakness rather then the stronger vessell Or was it rather out of partiality Was it not then as now that the weakest soonest suffers and impotency lays us open to the malice of an enemy Small flies hang in the webs whilst wasps break through without controll The wand and the sheet are for poor offenders the great either out-face or out-buy their shame A beggarly drunkard is haled to the Stocks whilst the rich is chambered up to sleep out his surfeit Out of these grounds is the woman brought to Christ Not to the mount of Olives not to the way not to his private lodging but to the Temple and that not to some obscure angle but into the face of the assembly They pleaded for her death the punishment which they would onwards inflict was her shame which must needs be so much more as there were more eyes to be witnesses of her guiltiness All the brood of sin affects darkness and secrecy but this more properly the twilight the night is for the adulterer It cannot be better fitted then to be dragged out into the light of the Sun and to be proclaimed with hootings and basins Oh the impudence of those men who can make merry professions of their own beastliness and boast of the shamefull trophees of their Lust Methinks I see this miserable Adulteress how she stands confounded amidst that gazing and disdainfull multitude how she hides her head how she wipes her blubbered face and weeping eyes In the mean time it is no dumb show that is here acted by these Scribes and Pharisees they step forth boldly to her accusation Master this Woman was taken in adultery in the very act How plausibly do they begin Had I stood by and heard them should I not have said What holy honest conscionable men are these what devout clients of Christ with what reverence they come to him with what zeal of justice When he that made and ransacks their bosom tells me All this is done but to tempt him Even the falsest hearts will have the plausiblest mouths like to Solomon's Curtizan their lips drop as an hony-comb and their mouth is smoother then oyl but their end is bitter as wormwood False and hollow Pharisees he is your Master
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
Pharisee entertains him and hath his table honoured with the publick remission of a penitent sinner with the heavenly doctrine of remission Zacchaeus entertains him salvation came that day to his house with the Authour of it That presence made the Publican a son of Abraham Matthew is recompensed for his feast with an Apostleship Martha and Mary entertain him and besides Divine instruction receive their brother from the dead O Saviour whether thou feast us or we feast thee in both of them is blessedness Where a Publican is the Feast-master it is no marvel if the guests be Publicans and Sinners Whether they came alone out of the hope of that mercy which they saw their fellow had found or whether Matthew invited them to be partners of that plentifull grace whereof he had tasted I inquire not Publicans and Sinners will flock together the one hatefull for their trade the other for their vicious life Common contempt hath wrought them to an unanimity and sends them to seek mutual comfort in that society which all others held loathsome and contagious Moderate correction humbleth and shameth the offender whereas a cruel severity makes men desperate and drives them to those courses whereby they are more dangerously infected How many have gone into the prison faulty and returned flagitious If Publicans were not Sinners they were no whit beholden to their neighbours What a table-full was here The Son of God beset with Publicans and Sinners O happy Publicans and Sinners that had found out their Saviour O mercifull Saviour that disdained not Publicans and Sinners What sinner can fear to kneel before thee when he sees Publicans and Sinners sit with thee Who can fear to be despised of thy meekness and mercy which didst not abhor to converse with the outcasts of men Thou didst not despise the Thief confessing upon the Cross nor the Sinner weeping upon thy feet nor the Canaanite crying to thee in the way nor the blushing Adulteress nor the odious Publican nor the forswearing Disciple nor the persecutour of Disciples nor thine own Executioners How can we be unwelcome to thee if we come with tears in our eyes faith in our hearts restitution in our hands O Saviour our breasts are too oft shut upon thee thy bosome is ever open to us We are as great sinners as the consorts of these Publicans why should we despair of a room at thy Table The squint-eyed Pharisees look a-cross at all the actions of Christ where they should have admired his mercy they cavil at his holiness They said to his Disciples Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners They durst not say thus to the Master whose answer they knew would soon have convinced them This wind they hoped might shake the weak faith of the Disciples They speak where they may be most likely to hurt All the crue of Satanical instruments have learnt this craft of their old Tutour in Paradise We cannot reverence that man whom we think unholy Christ had lost the hearts of his followers if they had entertained the least suspicion of his impurity which the murmur of these envious Pharisees would fain insinuate He cannot be worthy to be followed that is unclean He cannot but be unclean that eateth with Publicans and Sinners Proud and foolish Pharisees Ye fast whilst Christ eateth ye fast in your houses whilst Christ eateth in other mens ye fast with your own whilst Christ feasts with sinners But if ye fast in pride whilst Christ eats in humility if ye fast at home for merit or popularity whilst Christ feasts with sinners for compassion for edification for conversion your fast is unclean his feast is holy ye shall have your portion with hypocrites when those Publicans and Sinners shall be glorious When these censurers thought the Disciples had offended they speak not to them but to their Master Why doe thy Disciples that which is not lawfull now when they thought Christ offended they speak not to him but to the Disciples Thus like true make-bates they go about to make a breach in the family of Christ by setting off the one from the other The quick eye of our Saviour hath soon espied the pack of their fraud and therefore he takes the words out of the mouths of his Disciples into his own They had spoke of Christ to the Disciples Christ answers for the Disciples concerning himself The whole need not the Physician but the sick According to the two qualities of pride scorn and over-weening these insolent Pharisees over-rated their own holiness contemned the noted unholiness of others as if themselves were not tainted with secret sins as if others could not be cleansed by repentance The searcher of hearts meets with their arrogance and finds those Justiciaries sinfull those Sinners just The spiritual Physician finds the sickness of those Sinners wholsome the health of those Pharisees desperate that wholsome because it calls for the help of the Physician this desperate because it needs not Every soul is sick those most that feel it not Those that feel it complain those that complain have cure those that feel it not shall find themselves dying ere they can with to recover O blessed Physician by whose stripes we are healed by whose death we live happy are they that are under thy hands sick as of sin so of sorrow for sin It is as unpossible they should die as it is unpossible for thee to want either skill or power or mercy Sin hath made us sick unto death make thou us but as sick of our sins we are as safe as thou art gracious XVII Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd I Do not any-where find so furious a Demoniack as amongst the Gergesens Satan is most tyrannous where he is obeyed most Christ no sooner sailed over the lake then he was met by two possessed Gadarenes The extreme rage of the one hath drowned the mention of the other Yet in the midst of all that cruelty of the evil Spirit there was sometimes a remission if not an intermission of vexation If oft-times Satan caught him then sometimes in the same violence he caught him not It was no thank to that malignant one who as he was indefatigable in his executions so unmeasurable in his malice but to the mercifull over-ruling of God who in a gracious respect to the weakness of his poor creatures limits the spightfull attempts of that immortal Enemy and takes off this Mastive whilst we may take breath He who in his justice gives way to some onsets of Satan in his mercy restrains them so regarding our deservings that withall he regards our strength If way should be given to that malicious spirit we could not subsist no violent thing can endure and if Satan might have his will we should no moment be free He can be no more weary of doing evil to us then God is of doing good Are we therefore preserved from the malignity of these powers of darkness Blessed
be our strong helper that hath not given us over to be a prey unto their teeth Or if some scope have been given to that envious one to afflict us hath it been with favourable limitations it is thine onely mercy O God that hath chained and muzzled up this band-dog so as that he may scratch us with his paws but cannot pierce us with his fangs Far far is this from our deserts who had too well merited a just abdication from thy favour and protection and an interminable seisure by Satan both in soul and body Neither do I here see more matter of thanks to our God for our immunity from the external injuries of Satan then occasion of serious inquiry into his power over us for the spiritual I see some that think themselves safe from this ghostly tyranny because they sometimes find themselves in good moods free from the suggestions of gross sins much more from the commission Vain men that feed themselves with so false and frivolous comforts will they not see Satan through the just permission of God the same to the Soul in mental possessions that he is to the Body in corporal The worst Demoniack hath his lightsome respites not ever tortured not ever furious betwixt whiles he might look soberly talk sensibly move regularly It is a wofull comfort that we sin not always There is no Master so barbarous as to require of his Slave a perpetual unintermitted toil yet though he sometimes eat sleep rest he is a vassal still If that Wicked one have drawn us to a customary perpetration of evil and have wrought us to a frequent iteration of the same sin this is gage enough for our servitude matter enough for his tyranny and insultation He that would be our Tormentour always cares onely to be sometimes our Tempter The possessed is bound as with the invisible fetters of Satan so with the material chains of the inhabitants What can bodily force prevail against a spirit Yet they endeavour this restraint of the man whether out of charity or justice charity that he might not hurt himself justice that he might not hurt others None do so much befriend the Demoniack as those that bind him Neither may the spiritually possessed be otherwise handled for though this act of the enemy be plausible and to appearance pleasant yet there is more danger in this dear and smiling tyranny Two sorts of chains are fit for outrageous sinners good Laws unpartial Executions that they may not hurt that they may not be hurt to eternal death These iron chains are no sooner fast then broken There was more then an humane power in this disruption It is not hard to conceive the utmost of nature in this kind of actions Sampson doth not break the cords and ropes like a thread of tow but God by Sampson The man doth not break these chains but the Spirit How strong is the arm of these evil angels how far transcending the ordinary course of nature They are not called Powers for nothing What flesh and bloud could but tremble at the palpable inequality of this match if herein the mercifull protection of our God did not the rather magnifie it self that so much strength met with so much malice hath not prevailed against us In spite of both we are in safe hands He that so easily brake the iron fetters can never break the adamantine chain of our Faith In vain do the chafing billows of Hell beat upon that Rock whereon we are built And though these brittle chains of earthly metall be easily broken by him yet the sure tempered chain of God's eternal Decree he can never break That Almighty Arbiter of Heaven and Earth and Hell hath chained him up in the bottomless pit and hath so restrained his malice that but for our good we cannot be tempted we cannot be foiled but for a glorious victory Alas it is no otherwise with the spiritually possessed The chains of restraint are commonly broken by the fury of wickedness What are the respects of civility fear of God fear of men wholsome laws carefull executions to the desperately licentious but as cobwebs to an hornet Let these wild Demoniacks know that God hath provided chains for them that will hold even everlasting chains under darkness These are such as must hold the Devils themselves their Masters unto the judgment of the great Day how much more those impotent Vassals Oh that men would suffer themselves to be bound to their good behaviour by the sweet and easie recognizances of their duty to their God and the care of their own souls that so they might rather be bound up in the bundle of life It was not for rest that these chains were torn off but for more motion This prisoner runs away from his friends he cannot run away from his Jaolour He is now carried into the Wilderness not by meer external force but by internal impulsion carried by the same power that unbound him for the opportunity of his tyranny for the horrour of the place for the affamishment of his body for the avoidance of all means of resistence Solitary Desarts are the delights of Satan It is an unwise zeal that moves us to doe that to our selves in an opinion of merit and holiness which the Devil wishes to doe to us for a punishment and conveniency of temptation The evil Spirit is for solitariness God is for society He dwells in the assembly of his Saints yea there he hath a delight to dwell Why should not we account it our happiness that we may have leave to dwell where the Authour of all happiness loves to dwell There cannot be any misery incident unto us whereof our gracious Redeemer is not both conscious and sensible Without any intreaty therefore of the miserable Demoniack or suit of any friend the God of spirits takes pity of his distress and from no motion but his own commands the evil Spirit to come out of the man O admirable precedent of mercy preventing our requests exceeding our thoughts forcing favours upon our impotence doing that for us which we should and yet cannot desire If men upon our instant solicitations would give us their best aid it were a just praise of their bounty but it well became thee O God of mercy to go without force to give without suit And do we think thy goodness is impaired by thy glory If thou wert thus commiserative upon earth art thou less in Heaven How dost thou now take notice of all our complaints of all our infirmities how doth thine infinite pity take order to redress them What evil can befall us which thou knowest not feelest not relievest not How safe are we that have such a Guardian such a Mediatour in Heaven Not long before had our Saviour commanded the winds and waters and they could not but obey him now he speaks in the same language to the evil Spirit he intreats not he perswades not he commands Command argues superiority He onely is
rectified The ordination of Marriage is one for one They twain shall be one flesh There cannot be two heads to one body nor two bodies to one head Herod was her Adulterer he was not her Husband she was Herod's Harlot Philip's Wife Yet how doth Herod dote on her that for her sake he loads John with irons Whether will not the fury of inordinate Lust transport a man Certainly John was of late in Herod's favour That rough-hewn Preacher was for a Wilderness not for a Court Herod's invitation drew him thither his reverence and respects incouraged him there Now the love of his Lust hath carried him into an hate of God's Messenger That man can have no hold of himself or care of others who hath given the reins to his unruly Concupiscence He that hath once fixed his heart upon the face of an Harlot and hath beslaved himself to a bewitching Beauty casts off at once all fear of God respect to Laws shame of the world regard of his estate care of wife children friends reputation patrimony body Soul So violent is this beastly passion where it takes neither ever leaves till it hath hurried him into the chambers of death Herodias her self had first plotted to kill the Baptist her murtherers were suborned her ambushes laid The success failed and now she works with Herod for his durance O marvellous hand of the Almighty John was a mean man for estate solitary guardless unarmed impotent Herodias a Queen so great that she swayed Herod himself and not more great then subtle and not more great or subtle then malicious yet Herodias laid to kill John and could not What an invisible and yet sure guard there is about the poor servants of God that seem helpless and despicable in themselves There is over them an hand of Divine protection which can be no more opposed then seen Malice is not so strong in the hand as in the heart The Devil is stronger then a world of men a legion of Devils stronger then fewer spirits yet a legion of Devils cannot hurt one Swine without a permission What can bands of enemies or gates of Hell doe against God's secret ones It is better to trust in the Lord then to trust in Princes It is not more clear who was the Authour then what was the motive of this imprisonment the free reproof of Herod's Incest It is not lawfull c. Both the offenders were nettled with this bold reprehension Herod knew the reputation that John carried his Conscience could not but suggest the foulness of his own fact neither could he but see how odious it would seem to persecute a Prophet for so just a reproof For the colour therefore of so tyrannical an act he brands John with Sedition these presumptuous taxations are a disgrace and disparagement to Authority It is no news with wicked Tyrants to cloak their Cruelty with pretences of Justice Never was it other then the lot of God's faithfull servants to be loaded with unjust reproaches in the conscionable performance of their duties They should speed too well in the opinion of men if they might but appear in their true shape The fact of Herod was horrible and prodigious to rob his own Brother of the partner of his bed to tear away part of his flesh yea his body from his head So as here was at once in one act Adultery Incest Violence Adultery that he took another's wife Incest that he took his Brother's Violence that he thus took her in spite of her Husband Justly therefore might John say It is not lawfull for thee He balked not one of Herod's sins but reproved him of all the evils that he had done though more eminently of this as that which more filled the eye of the world It was not the Crown or awfull Scepter of Herod that could daunt the homely but faithfull messenger of God as one that came in the spirit of Elias he fears no faces spares no wickedness There must meet in God's ministers Courage and Impartiality Impartiality not to make difference of persons Courage not to make spare of the sins of the greatest It is an hard condition that the necessity of our Calling casts upon us in some cases to run upon the pikes of displeasure Prophecies were no Burthens if they did not expose us to these dangers We must connive at no evil Every sin unreproved becomes ours Hatred is the daughter of Truth Herod is inwardly vexed with so peremptory a reprehension and now he seeks to kill the authour And why did he not He feared the people The time was when he feared John no less then now he hates him he once reverenced him as a just and holy man whom now he heart-burns as an enemy neither was it any counterfeit respect sure the man was then in earnest What shall we say then was it that his inconstant heart was now fetcht off by Herodias and wrought to a disaffection or was it with Herod as with Salomon's Sluggard that at once would and would not His thoughts are distracted with a mixt voluntary contradiction of purposes as an holy man and honoured of the people he would not kill John he would kill him as an enemy to his Lust The worse part prevaileth Appetite oversways Reason and Conscience and now were it not for fear of the people John should be murthered What a self-conflicting and prodigious creature is a wicked man left over to his own thoughts whilst on the one side he is urged by his Conscience on the other by his lustfull desires and by the importunity of Satan There is no peace saith my God to the wicked and after all his inward broils he falls upon the worst so as his yieldance is worse then his fight When God sees fit Herod's tyranny shall effect that which the wise Providence of the Almighty hath decreed for his Servant's glory In the mean while rubs shall be cast in his way and this for one He feared the people What an absurd and sottish thing is Hypocrisy Herod fears the people he fears not God Tell me then Herod what could the people doe at the worst Perhaps mutiny against thee raise arms and tumults disturb the Government it may be shake it off What could God doe yea what not stir up all his creatures to plague thee and when he hath done tumble thee down to Hell and there torment thee everlastingly O fond Herod that fearest where no fear was and fearest not where there is nothing but terrour How God fits lewd men with restraints If they be so godless as to regard his creature above himself he hath externall buggs to affright them withall if bashfull he hath shame if covetous losses if proud disgrace and by this means the most wise Providence keeps the world in order We cannot better judge of our hearts then by what we most fear No man is so great as to be utterly exempted from fear The Jews feared Herod Herod feared the Jews the
mourning thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow The mother shreeks the servants cry out the people make lamentation the minstrells howl and strike dolefully so as the ear might question whether the Ditty or the Instrument were more heavy If ever expressions of sorrow sound well it is when Death leads the quire Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise and turns these unseasonable mourners whether formal or serious out of doors Not that he dislikes Musick whether to condole or comfort but that he had life in his eye and would have them know that he held these Funeral ceremonies to be too early and long before their time Give place for the maid is not dead but sleepeth Had she been dead she had but slept now she was not dead but asleep because he meant this nap of death should be so short and her awakening so speedy Death and Sleep are alike to him who can cast whom he will into the sleep of Death and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep Before the people and domesticks of Jairus held Jesus for a Prophet now they took him for a Dreamer Not dead but asleep They that came to mourn cannot now forbear to laugh Have we piped at so many Funerals and seen and lamented so many Corpses and cannot we distinguish betwixt Sleep and Death The eyes are set the breath is gone the lims are stiff and cold Who ever died if she do but sleep How easily may our Reason or Sense befool us in Divine matters Those that are competent Judges in natural things are ready to laugh God to scorn when he speaks beyond their compass and are by him justly laughed to scorn for their unbelief Vain and faithless men as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word and turn either Sleep into Death or Death into Sleep at pleasure Ere many minutes they shall be ashamed of their errour and incredulity There were witnesses enough of her death there shall not be many of her restoring Three choice Disciples and the two Parents are onely admitted to the view and testimony of this miraculous work The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty What did these scorners think and say when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors Doubtless the maid is but asleep the man fears lest the noise shall awake her we must speak and tread softly that we disquiet her not What will he and his Disciples doe the while Is it not to be feared they will startle her out of her rest Those that are shut out from the participation of God's counsells think all his words and projects no better then foolishness But art thou O Saviour ever the more discouraged by the derision and censure of these scornfull unbelievers Because fools jear thee dost thou forbear thy work Surely I do not perceive that thou heedest them save for contempt or carest more for their words then their silence It is enough that thine act shall soon honour thee and convince them He took her by the hand and called saying Maid arise and her spirit came again and she arose straightway How could that touch that Call be other then effectual He who made that hand touched it and he who shall once say Arise ye dead said now Maid arise Death cannot but obey him who is the Lord of life The Soul is ever equally in his hand who is the God of Spirits it cannot but go and come at his command When he says Maid arise the now-dissolved spirit knows his office his place and instantly re-assumes that room which by his appointment it had left O Saviour if thou do but bid my Soul to arise from the death of Sin it cannot lie still if thou bid my Body to arise from the grave my Soul cannot but glance down from her Heaven and animate it In vain shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee The Maid revives not now to languish for a time upon her sick-bed and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength but at once she arises from her death and from her couch at once she puts off her fever with her dissolution she finds her life and her feet at once at once she finds her feet and her stomack He commanded to give her meat Omnipotency doth not use to go the pace of Nature All God's immediate works are like himself perfect He that raised her supernaturally could have so fed her It was never the purpose of his Power to put ordinary Means out of office XXVI The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled THE time drew now on wherein Jesus must be received up He must take death in his way Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet He must be lift up to the Cross thence to climb into his Heaven Yet this comes not into mention as if all the thought of Death were swallowed up in this Victory over Death Neither O Saviour is it otherwise with us the weak members of thy mystical body We must die we shall be glorified What if Death stand before us we look beyond him at that transcendent Glory How should we be dismay'd with that pain which is attended with a blessed Immortality The strongest receit against Death is the happy estate that follows it next to that is the fore-expectation of it and resolution against it He stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem Jerusalem the nest of his enemies the Amphitheater of his conflicts the fatall place of his death Well did he know the plots and ambushes that were there laid for him and the bloudy issue of those designs yet he will go and goes resolved for the worst It is a sure and wise way to send our thoughts before us to grapple with those evils which we know must be incountred The enemy is half overcome that is well prepared for The strongest mischief may be outfaced with a seasonable fore-resolution There can be no greater disadvantage then the suddenness of a surprisall O God what I have not the power to avoid let me have the wisedom to expect The way from Galilee to Judaea lay through the Region of Samaria if not through the City Christ now towards the end of his Preaching could not but be attended with a multitude of followers It was necessary there should be purveyours and harbingers to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troup Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service they seek not for palaces and delicates but for house-room and victuals It was He whose the earth was and the fulness thereof whos 's the Heavens are and the mansions therein yet He who could have commanded Angels sues to Samaritans He that filled and comprehended Heaven sendeth for shelter in a
and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisedom but in a dull indifferency and chuse rather to freeze then burn How quick and apprehensive are men in cases of their own indignities how insensible of their Saviour's But there is nothing so ill as the corruption of the best Rectified zeal is not more commendable and usefull then inordinate and misguided is hatefull and dangerous Fire is a necessary and beneficial element but if it be once misplaced and have caught upon the beams of our houses or stacks of our corn nothing can be more direfull Thus sometimes Zeal turns Murther They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholsome and blessed is that Zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by Wisedom and Charity Wisedom to avoid rashness and excess Charity to avoid just offence No motion can want a pretence Elias did so why not we He was an holy Prophet the occasion the place abludes not much there wrong was offered to a servant here to his Master there to a man here to a God and man If Elias then did it why not we There is nothing more perillous then to draw all the actions of Holy men into examples For as the best men have their weaknesses so they are not privileged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instinct or special command which we shall expect in vain There must be much caution used in our imitation of the best patterns whether in respect of the persons or things else we shall make our selves Apes and our acts sinfull absurdities It is a rare thing for our Saviour to find fault with the errours of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with God's own hand I find him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitours and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitableness cannot be swallowed up in zeal If there were any colour to hide the blemishes of this misdisposition it should be this crimson die But he that needs not our Lie will let us know he needs not our Injury and hates to have a good cause supported by the violation of our Charity We have no reason to disclaim our Passions Even the Son of God chides sometimes yea where he loves It offends not that our Affections are moved but that they are inordinate It was a sharp word Ye know not of what spirit ye are Another man would not perhaps have felt it a Disciple doth Tender hearts are galled with that which the carnal mind slighteth The spirit of Elias was that which they meant to assume and imitate they shall now know their mark was mistaken How would they have hated to think that any other but God's Spirit had stirred them up to this passionate motion now they shall know it was wrought by that ill spirit whom they professed to hate It is far from the good Spirit of God to stir up any man to private revenge or thirst of bloud Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwind or in the fire but in the soft voice O Saviour what do we seek for any precedent but thine whose name we challenge Thou camest to thine own thine own received thee not Didst thou call for fire from Heaven upon them didst thou not rather send down water from thy compassionate eyes and weep for them by whom thou must bleed Better had it been for us never to have had any spirit then any but thine We can be no other then wicked if our mercies be cruelty But is it the name of Elias O ye Zelots which ye pretend for a colour of your impotent desire Ye do not consider the difference betwixt his Spirit and yours His was extraordinary and heroical besides the instinct or secret command of God for this act of his far otherwise is it with you who by a carnal distemper are moved to this furious suggestion Those that would imitate God's Saints in singular actions must see they go upon the same grounds Without the same Spirit and the same warrant it is either a mockery or a sin to make them our Copies Elias is no fit pattern for Disciples but their Master The Son of man came not to destroy mens lives but to save them Then are our actions and intentions warrantable and praise-worthy when they accord with his O Saviour when we look into those sacred Acts and monuments of thine we find many a life which thou preservedst from perishing some that had perished by thee recalled never any by thee destroyed Onely one poor fig-tree as the reall Emblem of thy severity to the unfruitfull was blasted and withered by thy curse But to man how ever favourable and indulgent wert thou So repelled as thou wert so reviled so persecuted laid for sold betrayed apprehended arraigned condemned crucified yet what one man didst thou strike dead for these hainous indignities Yea when one of thine enemies lost but an ear in that ill quarrel thou gavest that ear to him who came to take life from thee I find some whom thou didst scourge and correct as the sacrilegious money-changers none whom thou killedst Not that thou either lovest not or requirest not the duly severe execution of justice Whose sword is it that Princes bear but thine Offenders must smart and bleed This is a just sequel but not the intention of thy coming thy will not thy drift Good Princes make wholsome Laws for the well-ordering of their people there is no authority without due coercion The violation of these good Laws is followed with death whose end was preservation life order and this not so much for revenge of an offence past as for prevention of future mischief How can we then enough love and praise thy mercy O thou preserver of men How should we imitate thy saving and beneficent disposition towards mankind as knowing the more we can help to save the nearer we come to thee that camest to save all and the more destructive we are the more we resemble him who is Abaddon a murtherer from the beginning XXVII The Ten Lepers THE Samaritans were tainted not with Schism but Heresie but Paganism our Saviour yet balks them not but makes use of the way as it lies and bestows upon them the courtesie of some Miracles Some kind of commerce is lawfull even with those without Terms of intireness and leagues of inward amity are here unfit unwarrantable dangerous but civil respects and wise uses of them for our convenience or necessity need not must not be forborn Ten Lepers are here met those that
eternally possessed the glory of his Father without any witnesses in time the Angels were blessed with that sight and after that two bodily yet Heavenly witnesses were allowed Enoch and Elias Now in his humanity he was invested with glory he takes but three witnesses and those earthly and weak Peter James John And why these We may be too curious Peter because the eldest John because the dearest James because next Peter the zealousest Peter because he loved Christ most John because Christ most loved him James because next to both he loved and was loved most I had rather to have no reason but quia complacuit because it so pleased him Why may we not as well ask why he chose these twelve from others as why he chose these three out of the twelve If any Romanists will raise from hence any privilege to Peter which we could be well content to yield if that would make them ever the honester men they must remember that they must take company with them which these Pompeian spirits cannot abide As good no privilege as any partners And withall they must see him more taxed for his errour in this act then honoured by his presence at the act whereas the Beloved Disciple saw and erred not These same three which were witnesses of his Transfiguration in the mount were witnesses of his Agony in the garden all three and these three alone were present at both but both times sleeping These were arietes gregis the Bell-weathers of the flock as Austin calls them Oh weak devotion of three great Disciples These were Paul's three pillars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gal. 2.9 Christ takes them up twice once to be witnesses of his greatest Glory once of his greatest Extremity they sleep both times The other was in the night more tolerable this by day yea in a light above day Chrysostome would fain excuse it to be an amazedness not a sleep not considering that they slept both at that Glory and after in the Agony To see that Master praying one would have thought should have fetcht them on their knees especially to see those Heavenly affections look out at his Eyes to see his Soul lifted up in his Hands in that transported fashion to Heaven But now the hill hath wearied their lims their body clogs their Soul and they fall asleep Whilst Christ saw Divine visions they dreamed dreams whilst he was in another world ravished with the sight of his Father's Glory yea of his own they were in another world a world of fancies surprized with the cousin of death sleep Besides so gracious an example their own necessity quia incessanter pecco because I continually sin Bernard's reason might have moved them to pray rather then their Master and behold in stead of fixing their eyes upon Heaven they shut them in stead of lifting up their hearts their heads fall down upon their shoulders and shortly here was snorting in stead of sighs and prayers This was not Abraham's or Elihu's ecstatical sleep Job 33. not the sleep of the Church a waking sleep but the plain sleep of the eyes and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a slumbring sleep which David denies to himself Psal 132. but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sound sleep which Solomon forbids Prov. 6.4 yea rather 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the dead sleep of Adam or Jonas and as Bernard had wont to say when he heard a Monk snort they did carnaliter seu seculariter dormire Prayer is an ordinary receit for sleep How prone are we to it when we should mind Divine things Adam slept in Paradise and lost a Rib but this sleep was of God's giving and this rib was of God's taking The good Husband slept and found tares Eutychus slept and fell Whilst Satan lulls us asleep as he doth always rock the cradle when we sleep in our devotions he ever takes some good from us or puts some evil in us or indangers us a deadly fall Away with this spiritual Lethargy Bernard had wont to say that those which sleep are dead to men those that are dead are asleep to God But I say those that sleep at Church are dead to God so we preach their Funeral Sermons in stead of hortatory And as he was wont to say he lost no time so much as that wherein he slept so let me adde there is no loss of time so desperate as of holy time Think that Christ saith to thee at every Sermon as he did to Peter Etiam Petre dormis Sleepest thou Peter couldst thou not wake with me one hour A slumbring and a drowzy heart do not become the business and presence of him that keepeth Israel and slumbers not These were the Attendents see the Companions of Christ As our glory is not consummate without society no more would Christ have his therefore his Transfiguration hath two Companions Moses Elias As Saint Paul says of himself Whether in the body or out of the body I know not God knows so say I of these two Of Eliah there may seem less doubt since we know that his body was assumed to Heaven and might as well come down for Christ's glory as go up for his own although some grave Authours as Calvin Oecolampadius Bale Fulk have held his body with Enoch's resolved into their elements sed ego non credulus illis Enoch translatus est in carne Elias carneus raptus est in coelum c. Enoch was translated in the flesh and Elias being yet in the flesh was taken into Heaven saith Hierome in his Epistle ad Pammachium And for Moses though it be rare and singular and Austin makes much scruple of it yet why might not he after death return in his body to the glory of Christ's Transfiguration as well as afterwards many of the Saints did to the glory of his Resurrection I cannot therefore with the Gloss think there is any reason why Moses should take another a borrowed body rather then his own Heaven could not give two fitter companions more admirable to the Jews for their Miracles more gracious with God for their Faith and Holiness Both of them admitted to the conference with God in Horeb both of them Types of Christ both of them fasted forty days both of them for the glory of God suffered many perils both divided the waters both the messengers of God to Kings both of them marvellous as in their life so in their end A chariot of Angels took away Elias he was sought by the Prophets and not found Michael strove with the Devil for the body of Moses he was sought for by the Jews and not found and now both of them are found here together on Tabor This Elias shews himself to the Royall Prophet of his Church this Moses shews himself to the true Michael Moses the publisher of the Law Elias the chief of the Prophets shew themselves to the God of the Law and Prophets Alter populi informator aliquando alter reformator
slippery What difference is there betwixt his curse and the happiness of the Ambitious but this That the way of the one is dark and slippery the way of the other lightsome and slippery that dark that they may fall this light that they may see and be seen to fall Please your selves then ye great ones and let others please you in the admiration of your height But if your goodness do not answer your greatness Sera querela est quoniam elevans allisisti me It is a late complaint Thou hast lift me up to cast me down Your ambition hath but set you up a scaffold that your misery might be more notorious And yet these clients of Honour say Bonum est esse hîc The pampered Glutton when he seeth his table spred with full bowls with costly dishes and curious sauces the dainties of all three elements says Bonum est esse hîc And yet eating hath a satiety and satiety a wearînest his heart is never more empty of contentment then when his stomack is fullest of Delicates When he is empty he is not well till he be filled when he is full he is not well till he have got a stomack Et momentanea blandimenta gulae stercoris fine condemnat saith Hierom And he condemns all the momentany pleasures of his maw to the dunghill And when he sits at his feasts of marrow and fat things as the Prophet speaks his table according to the Psalmist's imprecation is made his snare a true snare every way his Soul is caught in it with excess his estate with penury his Body with diseases Neither doth he more plainly tear his meat in pieces with his teeth then he doth himself And yet this vain man says Bonum est esse hîc The petulant Wanton thinks it the onely happiness that he may have his full scope to filthy dalliance Little would he so doe if he could see his Strumpet as she is her eyes the eyes of a Cockatrice her hairs snakes her painted face the visor of a fury her heart snares her hands bands and her end wormwood consumption of the flesh destruction of the Soul and the flames of lust ending in the flames of Hell Since therefore neither Pleasures nor Honour nor Wealth can yield any true contentment to their best favourites let us not be so unwise as to speak of this vale of misery as Peter did of the hill of Tabor Bonum est esse hîc And if the best of earth cannot doe it why will ye seek it in the worst How dare any of you great ones seek to purchase contentment with Oppression Sacrilege Bribery out-facing innocence and truth with power damning your own Souls for but the humouring of a few miserable days Filii hominum usquequo gravi corde ad quid diligitis vanitatem quaeritis mendacium O ye sons of men how long c But that which moved Peter's desire though with imperfection shews what will perfect our desire and felicity for if a glimpse of this Heavenly glory did so ravish this worthy Disciple that he thought it happiness enough to stand by and gaze upon it how shall we be affected with the contemplation yea fruition of the Divine Presence Here was but Tabor there is Heaven here were but two Saints there many millions of Saints and Angels here was Christ transfigured there he sits at the right hand of Majesty here was a representation there a gift and possession of Blessedness Oh that we could now forget the world and fixing our eyes upon this better Tabor say Bonum est esse hîc Alas this life of ours if it were not short yet it is miserable and if it were not miserable yet it is short Tell me ye that have the greatest Command on earth whether this vile world have ever afforded you any sincere contentation The world is your servant if it were your Parasite yet could it make you heartily merry Ye delicatest Courtiers tell me if Pleasure it self have not an unpleasant tediousness hanging upon it and more sting then honey And whereas all happiness even here below is in the vision of God how is our spirituall eye hindered as the body is from his Object by darkness by false light by aversion Darkness he that doeth sin is in darkness False light whilst we measure eternal things by temporary Aversion whilst as weak eyes hate the light we turn our eyes from the true and immutable good to the fickle and uncertain We are not on the hill but in the valley where we have tabernacles not of our own making but of clay and such as wherein we are witnesses of Christ not transfigured in glory but blemished with dishonour dishonoured with oaths and blasphemies re-crucified with our sins witnesses of God's Saints not shining in Tabor but mourning in darkness and in stead of that Heavenly brightness cloathed with sackcloath and ashes Then and there we shall have tabernacles not made with hands eternall in the heavens where we shall see how sweet the Lord is we shall see the triumphs of Christ we shall hear and sing the Hallelujahs of Saints Quae nunc nos angit vesania vitiorum sitire absynthium c saith that devout Father Oh! how hath our corruption bewitched us to thirst for this wormwood to affect the shipwrecks of this world to dote upon the misery of this fading life and not rather to fly up to the felicity of Saints to the society of Angels to that blessed contemplation wherein we shall see God in himself God in us our selves in him There shall be no sorrow no pain no complaint no fear no death There is no malice to rise against us no misery to afflict us no hunger thirst weariness temptation to disquiet us There O there one day is better then a thousand There is rest from our labours peace from our enemies freedome from our sins How many clouds of discontentment darken the Sunshine of our joy while we are here below Vae nobis qui vivimus plangere quae pertulimus dolere quae sentimus timere quae exspectamus Complaint of evils past sense of present fear of future have shared our lives amongst them Then shall we be semper laeti semper satiati always joyfull always satisfied with the vision of that God in whose presence there is fulness of joy and at whose right hand are pleasures for evermore Shall we see that heathen Cleombrotus abandoning his life and casting himself down from the rock upon an uncertain noise of immortality and shall not we Christians abandon the wicked superfluities of life the pleasures of sin for that life which we know more certainly then this What stick we at my beloved Is there a Heaven or is there none have we a Saviour there or have we none We know there is a Heaven as sure as that there is an earth below us we know we have a Saviour there as sure as there are men that we converse with upon earth we know
stick at this shovel-full Yea how easy had it been for thee to have brought up the body of Lazarus through the stone by causing that marble to give way by a sudden rarefaction But thou thoughtest best to make use of their hands rather whether for their own more full conviction for had the stone been taken away by thy Followers and Lazarus thereupon walked forth this might have appeared to thy malignant enemies to have been a set match betwixt thee the Disciples and Lazarus or whether for the exercise of our Faith that thou mightest teach us to trust thee under contrary appearances Thy command to remove the stone seemed to argue an impotence straight that seeming weakness breaks forth into an act of Omnipotent power The homeliest shews of thine humane infirmity are ever seconded with some mighty proofs of thy Godhead and thy Miracle is so much more wondred at by how much it was less expected It was ever thy just will that we should doe what we may To remove the stone or to untie the napkin was in their power this they must doe to raise the dead was out of their power this therefore thou wilt doe alone Our hands must doe their utmost ere thou wilt put to thine O Saviour we are all dead and buried in the grave of our sinfull Nature The stone of obstination must be taken away from our hearts ere we can hear thy reviving voice we can no more remove this stone then dead Lazarus could remove his we can adde more weight to our graves O let thy faithfull agents by the power of thy Law and the grace of thy Gospell take off the stone that thy voice may enter into the grave of miserable corruption Was it a modest kind of mannerliness in Martha that she would not have Christ annoyed with the ill sent of that stale carkass or was it out of distrust of reparation since her brother had passed all the degrees of corruption that she says Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four days He that understood hearts found somewhat amiss in that intimation his answer had not endeavoured to rectifie that which was utterly faultless I fear the good woman meant to object this as a likely obstacle to any farther purposes or proceedings of Christ Weak faith is still apt to lay blocks of difficulties in the way of the great works of God Four days were enough to make any corps noisome Death it self is not unsavoury immediately upon dissolution the body retains the wonted sweetness it is the continuance under death that is thus offensive Neither is it otherwise in our Spiritual condition the longer we lie under our sin the more rotten and corrupt we are He who upon the fresh commission of his sin recovers himself by a speedy repentance yields no ill sent to the nostrills of the Almighty The Candle that is presently blown in again offends not it is the Snuffe which continues choaked with its own moisture that sends up unwholsome and odious fumes O Saviour thou wouldst yield to death thou wouldst not yield to corruption Ere the fourth day thou wert risen again I cannot but receive many deadly foils but oh do thou raise me up again ere I shall pass the degrees of rottenness in my sins and trespasses They that laid their hands to the stone doubtless held now still awhile and looked one while on Christ another while upon Martha to hear what issue of resolution would follow upon so important an objection when they find a light touch of taxation to Martha Said not I to thee that if thou wouldst believe thou shouldst see the glory of God That holy woman had before professed her belief as Christ had professed his great intentions both were now forgotten and now our Saviour is fain to revive both her memory and Faith Said not I to thee The best of all Saints are subject to fits of unbelief and oblivion the onely remedy whereof must be the inculcation of God's mercifull promises of their relief and supportation O God if thou have said it I dare believe I dare cast my Soul upon the belief of every word of thine Faithfull art thou which hast promised who wilt also doe it In spite of all the unjust discouragements of Nature we must obey Christ's command What-ever Martha suggests they remove the stone and may now see and smell him dead whom they shall soon see revived The sent of the corps is not so unpleasing to them as the perfume of their obedience is sweet to Christ And now when all impediments are removed and all hearts ready for the work our Saviour addresses to the Miracle His Eyes begin they are lift up to Heaven It was the malicious mis-suggestion of his enemies that he look'd down to Beelzebub the beholders shall now see whence he expects and derives his power and shall by him learn whence to expect and hope for all success The heart and the eye must go together he that would have ought to doe with God must be sequestred and lifted up from earth His Tongue seconds his Eye Father Nothing more stuck in the stomack of the Jews then that Christ called himself the Son of God this was imputed to him for a Blasphemy worthy of stones How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews in whose sight he will be presently approved so How can ye now O ye cavillers except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified Well may he call God Father that can raise the dead out of the grave In vain shall ye snarl at the style when ye are convinced of the effect I hear of no Prayer but a Thanks for hearing Whilst thou saidst nothing O Saviour how doth thy Father hear thee Was it not with thy Father and thee as it was with thee and Moses Thou saidst Let me alone Moses when he spake not Thy will was thy prayer Words express our hearts to men thoughts to God Well didst thou know out of the self-sameness of thy will with thy Father's that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise he was now raised It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly lest those captious hearers should say thou didst all by intreaty nothing by power Thy thanks overtake thy desires ours require time and distance our thanks arise from the Echo of our prayers resounding from Heaven to our hearts Thou because thou art at once in earth and Heaven and knowest the grant to be of equall paces with the request most justly thankest in praying Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight Is there such distance betwixt the Father and the Son is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusuall Do ye not now see that he who made your heart knows it and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath I knew that thou hearest me always but
I said this for their sakes that they might believe Mercifull Saviour how can we enough admire thy goodness who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions Alas what wert thou the better if they believed thee sent from God what wert thou the worse if they believed it not Thy perfection and glory stands not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike but is reall in thy self and that infinite without possibility of our increase or diminution We we onely are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receit or rejection yet so dost thou affect our belief as if it were more thine advantage then ours O Saviour whilst thou spak'st to thy Father thou liftedst up thine eyes now thou wert to speak unto dead Lazarus thou liftedst up thy voice and criedst aloud Lazarus come forth Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection since we faintly require what we care not to obtain and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire Was it that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work Was it that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act no magicall incantations but authoritative and Divine commands Was it to signifie that Lazarus his Soul was called from far the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world Was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus whom thou hadst reported to sleep since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call Or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last Trumpet which shall sound into all graves and raise all flesh from their dust Even so still Lord when thou wouldst raise a Soul from the death of sin and grave of corruption no easie voice will serve Thy strongest commands thy loudest denunciations of Judgments the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy Mercies are but enough How familiar a word is this Lazarus come forth no other then he was wont to use whilst they lived together Neither doth he say Lazarus revive but as if he supposed him already living Lazarus come forth To let them know that those who are dead to us are to and with him alive yea in a more entire and feeling society then whilst they carried their clay about them Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour Neither was the word more familiar then commanding Lazarus come forth Here is no suit to his Father no adjuration to the deceased but a flat and absolute injunction Come forth O Saviour that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottom of my grave and raising me up out of my dust that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains and fetch up the dead out of the lowest deeps Thy word made all thy word shall repair all Hence all ye diffident fears he whom I trust is Omnipotent It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corps in linen to tie the hands and feet and to cover the face of the dead The Fall of man besides weakness brought shame upon him ever since even whilst he lives the whole Body is covered but the Face because some sparks of that extinct Majesty remain there is wont to be left open In death all those poor remainders being gone and leaving deformity and gastliness in the room of them the Face is covered also There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters One Almighty word hath loosed both and now he that was bound came forth He whose power could not be hindred by the chains of death cannot be hindred by linen bonds He that gave life gave motion gave direction He that guided the Soul of Lazarus into the body guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces No doubt the same power slackned those swathing-bands of death that the feet might have some little scope to move though not with that freedome that followed after Thou didst not onely O Saviour raise the body of Lazarus but the Faith of the beholders They cannot deny him dead whom they saw rising they see the signs of death with the proofs of life Those very swathes convinced him to be the man that was raised Thy less Miracle confirms the greater both confirm the Faith of the beholders O clear and irrefragable example of our resuscitation Say now ye shameless Sadducees with what face can ye deny the Resurrection of the body when ye see Lazarus after four-days death rising up out of his grave And if Lazarus did thus start up at the bleating of this Lamb of God that was now every day preparing for the slaughter-house how shall the dead be rouzed up out of their graves by the roaring of that glorious and immortall Lion whose voice shall shake the powers of Heaven and move the very foundations of the earth With what strange amazedness do we think that Martha and Mary the Jews and the Disciples look'd to see Lazarus come forth in his winding-sheet shackled with his linen fetters and walk towards them Doubtless fear and horrour strove in them whether should be for the time more predominant We love our friends dearly but to see them again after their known death and that in the very robes of the grave must needs set up the hair in a kind of uncouth rigour And now though it had been most easy for him that brake the adamantine fetters of death to have broke in pieces those linen ligaments wherewith his raised Lazarus was encumbred yet he will not doe it but by their hands He that said Remove the stone said Loose Lazarus He will not have us expect his immediate help in that we can doe for our selves It is both a laziness and a presumptuous tempting of God to look for an extraordinary and supernaturall help from God where he hath enabled us with common aid What strange salutations do we think there were betwixt Lazarus and Christ that had raised him betwixt Lazarus and his Sisters and neighbours and friends what amazed looks what unusuall complements For Lazarus was himself at once here was no leisure of degrees to reduce him to his wonted perfection neither did he stay to rub his eyes and stretch his benummed lims nor take time to put off that dead sleep wherewith he had been seized but instantly he is both alive and fresh and vigorous if they do but let him goe he walks so as if he had ailed nothing and receives and gives mutuall gratulations I leave them entertaining each other with glad embraces with discourses of reciprocall admiration with praises and adorations of that God and Saviour that had fetched him into life XLII CHRIST's Procession to the Temple NEver did our Saviour take so much state upon him as now that he was going towards his
Blessed Mother that a sword should pierce through her Soul but alas how many swords at once pierce thine Every one of these words is both sharp and edged My Soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death What humane Soul is capable of the conceit of the least of those sorrows that oppressed thine It was not thy Body that suffered now the pain of body is but as the body of pain the anguish of the Soul is as the soul of anguish That and in that thou sufferedst Where are they that dare so far disparage thy Sorrow as to say thy Soul suffered onely in sympathy with thy Body not immediately but by participation not in its self but in its partner Thou best knewest what thou feltest and thou that feltest thine own pain canst cry out of thy Soul Neither didst thou say My Soul is troubled so it often was even to tears but My Soul is sorrowfull as if it had been before assaulted now possessed with grief Nor yet this in any tolerable moderation changes of Passion are incident to every humane Soul but Exceeding sorrowfull Yet there are degrees in the very extremities of evils those that are most vehement may yet be capable of a remedy at least a relaxations thine was past these hopes Exceeding sorrowfull unto death What was it what could it be O Saviour that lay thus heavy upon thy Divine Soul Was it the fear of Death was it the fore-felt pain shame torment of thine ensuing Crucifixion Oh poor and base thoughts of the narrow hearts of cowardly and impotent mortality How many thousands of thy blessed Martyrs have welcomed no less tortures with smiles and gratulations and have made a sport of those exquisite cruelties which their very Tyrants thought unsufferable Whence had they this strength but from thee If their weakness were thus undaunted and prevalent what was thy power No no It was the sad weight of the Sin of mankind it was the heavy burthen of thy Father's wrath for our sin that thus pressed thy Soul and wrung from thee these bitter expressions What can it avail thee O Saviour to tell thy grief to men who can ease thee but he of whom thou saidst My Father is greater then I Lo to him thou turnest O Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Was not this that prayer O dear Christ which in the days of thy flesh thou offeredst up with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save thee from death Surely this was it Never was cry so strong never was God thus solicited How could Heaven chuse but shake at such a Prayer from the Power that made it How can my heart but tremble to hear this suit from the Captain of our Salvation O thou that saidst I and my Father are one dost thou suffer ought from thy Father but what thou wouldst what thou determinedst was this Cup of thine either casuall or forced wouldst thou wish for what thou knewest thou wouldst not have possible Far far be these mis-raised thoughts of our ignorance and frailty Thou camest to suffer and thou wouldst doe what thou camest for yet since thou wouldst be a man thou wouldst take all of man save sin it is but humane and not sinfull to be loth to suffer what we may avoid In this velleity of thine thou wouldst shew what that Nature of ours which thou hadst assumed could incline to wish but in thy resolution thou wouldst shew us what thy victorious thoughts raised and assisted by thy Divine power had determinately pitched upon Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt As man thou hadst a Will of thine own no humane Soul can be perfect without that main faculty That will which naturally could be content to incline towards an exemption from miseries gladly vails to that Divine will whereby thou art designed to the chastisements of our peace Those pains which in themselves were grievous thou embracest as decreed so as thy fear hath given place to thy love and obedience How should we have known these evils so formidable if thou hadst not in half a thought inclined to deprecate them How could we have avoided so formidable and deadly evils if thou hadst not willingly undergone them We acknowledge thine holy fear we adore thy Divine fortitude Whilst thy Mind was in this fearfull agitation it is no marvell if thy Feet were not fixed Thy place is more changed then thy thoughts One while thou walkest to thy drouzy Attendents and stirrest up their needfull vigilancy then thou returnest to thy passionate Devotions thou fallest again upon thy face If thy Body be humbled down to the earth thy Soul is yet lower thy prayers are so much more vehement as thy pangs are And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of bloud falling down to the ground O my Saviour what an agony am I in whilst I think of thine What pain what fear what strife what horrour was in thy Sacred breast How didst thou struggle under the weight of our sins that thou thus sweatest that thou thus bleedest All was peace with thee thou wert one with thy coeternal and coessential Father all the Angels worshipp'd thee all the powers of Heaven and earth awfully acknowledged thine Infiniteness It was our person that feoffed thee in this misery and torment in that thou sustainedst thy Father's wrath and our curse If eternal death be unsufferable if every sin deserve eternal death what O what was it for thy Soul in this short time of thy bitter Passion to answer those millions of eternal deaths which all the sins of all mankind had deserved from the just hand of thy Godhead I marvell not if thou bleedest a sweat if thou sweatest bloud If the moisture of that Sweat be from the Body the tincture of it is from the Soul As there never was such another Sweat so neither can there be ever such a Suffering It is no wonder if the Sweat were more then natural when the Suffering was more then humane O Saviour so willing was that precious bloud of thine to be let forth for us that it was ready to prevent thy Persecutours and issued forth in those pores before thy wounds were opened by thy Tormentours Oh that my heart could bleed unto thee with true inward compunction for those sins of mine which are guilty of this thine Agony and have drawn bloud of thee both in the Garden and on the Cross Woe is me I had been in Hell if thou hadst not been in thine Agony I had scorched if thou hadst not sweat Oh let me abhor my own wickedness and admire and bless thy Mercy But O ye blessed Spirits which came to comfort my conflicted Saviour how did ye look upon this Son of God when ye saw him labouring for life under these violent temptations with what astonishment did ye behold him bleeding whom ye adored In the Wilderness after his Duell with Satan ye
Is this the honour that thou givest to our sacred Priesthood Is this thy valuation of our Sanctity Had the basest of the vulgar complained to thee thou couldst but have put them to a review Our Place and Holiness look'd not to be distrusted If our scrupulous Consciences suspect thy very walls thou maist well think there is small reason to suspect our Consciences Upon a full hearing ripe deliberation and exquisitely-judiciall proceeding we have sentenced this Malefactour to death there needs no more from thee but thy command of Execution Oh monster whether of Malice or Unjustice Must he then be a Malefactour whom ye will condemn Is your bare word ground enough to shed bloud Whom did ye ever kill but the righteous By whose hands perished the Prophets The word was but mistaken ye should have said If we had not been Malefactours we had never delivered up this innocent man unto thee It must needs be notoriously unjust which very Nature hath taught Pagans to abhor Pilate sees and hates this bloudy suggestion and practice Do ye pretend Holiness and urge so injurious a violence If he be such as ye accuse him where is his conviction If he cannot be legally convicted why should he die Do you think I may take your complaint for a crime If I must judge for you why have you judged for your selves Could ye suppose that I would condemn any man unheard If your Jewish Laws yield you this liberty the Roman Laws yield it not to me It is not for me to judge after your laws but after our own Your prejudgment may not sway me Since ye have gone so far be ye your own carvers of Justice Take ye him and judge him according to your Law O Pilate how happy had it been for thee if thou hadst held thee there thus thou hadst wash'd thy hands more clean then in all thy basons Might Law have been the rule of this Judgment and not Malice this bloud had not been shed How palpably doth their tongue bewray their heart It is not lawfull for us to put any man to death Pilate talks of Judgment they talk of Death This was their onely aim Law was but a colour Judgment was but a ceremony Death was their drift and without this nothing Bloud-thirsty Priests and Elders it is well that this power of yours is restrained no Innocence could have been safe if your lawless will had had no limits It were pity this sword should be in any but just and sober hands Your fury did not always consult with Law what Law allowed your violence to Stephen to Paul and Barnabas and your deadly attempts against this Blessed Jesus whom ye now persecute How lawfull was it for you to procure that death which ye could not inflict It is all the care of Hypocrites to seek umbrages and pretences for their hatefull purposes and to make no other use of Laws whether Divine or humane but to serve turns Where death is fore-resolved there cannot want accusations Malice is not so barren as not to yield crimes enough And they began to accuse him saying We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar saying that he himself is Christ and King What accusations saidst thou O Pilate Hainous and capitall Thou mightest have believed our confident intimation but since thou wilt needs urge us to particulars know that we come furnished with such an inditement as shall make thine ears glow to hear it Besides that Blasphemy whereof he hath been condemned by us this man is a Seducer of the people a raiser of Sedition an usurper of Sovereignty O impudent suggestion What marvell is it O Saviour if thine honest servants be loaded with slanders when thy most innocent person escaped not so shamefull criminations Thou a perverter of the Nation who taughtest the way of God truely Thou a forbidder of Tribute who payedst it who prescribedst it who provedst it to be Caesar's due Thou a challenger of temporall Sovereignty who avoidedst it renouncedst it professedst to come to serve Oh the forehead of Malice Go ye shameless traducers and swear that Truth is guilty of all Falshood Justice of all Wrong and that the Sun is the onely cause of Darkness Fire of Cold. Now Pilate startles at the Charge The name of Tribute the name of Caesar is in mention These potent spells can fetch him back to the common Hall and call Jesus to the Bar. There O Saviour standest thou meekly to be judged who shalt once come to judge the quick and the dead Then shall he before whom thou stoodest guiltless and dejected stand before thy dreadfull Majesty guilty and trembling The name of a King of Caesar is justly tender and awfull the least whisper of an Usurpation or disturbance is entertained with a jealous care Pilate takes this intimation at the first bound Art thou then the King of the Jews He felt his own free-hold now touched it was time for him to stir Daniel's Weeks were now famously known to be near expiring Many arrogant and busie spirits as Judas of Galilee Theudas and that Aegyptian Seducer taking that advantage had raised severall Conspiracies set up new titles to the Crown gathered Forces to maintain their false claims Perhaps Pilate supposed some such business now on foot and therefore asks so curiously Art thou the King of the Jews He that was no less Wisedom then Truth thought it not best either to affirm or deny at once Sometimes it may be extremely prejudiciall to speak all truths To disclaim that Title suddenly which had been of old given him by the Prophets at his Birth by the Eastern Sages and now lately at his Procession by the acclaiming multitude had been injurious to himself to profess and challenge it absolutely had been unsafe and needlesly provoking By wise and just degrees therefore doth he so affirm this truth that he both satisfies the inquirer and takes off all perill and prejudice from his assertion Pilate shall know him a King but such a King as no King needs to fear as all Kings ought to acknowledge and adore My Kingdom is not of this world It is your mistaking O ye earthly Potentates that is guilty of your fears Herod hears of a King born and is troubled Pilate hears of a King of the Jews and is incensed Were ye not ignorant ye could not be jealous Had ye learned to distinguish of Kingdoms these suspicions would vanish There are Secular Kingdoms there are Spirituall neither of these trenches upon other your Kingdom is Secular Christ's is Spirituall both may both must stand together His Laws are Divine yours civil His Reign is eternall yours temporall the glory of his Rule is inward and stands in the Graces of Sanctification Love Peace Righteousness Joy in the Holy Ghost yours in outward pomp riches magnificence His Enemies are the Devil the World the Flesh yours are bodily usurpers and externall peace-breakers His Sword is the power of the Word
or hands or feet It could not but goe deep into thy Soul to hear these bitter and girding reproaches from them thou camest to save But alas what flea-bitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Father's wrath for the sins of the whole world which now lay heavy upon thee for satisfaction This oh this was it that pressed thy Soul as it were to the neathermost Hell Whilst thine Eternall Father look'd lovingly upon thee what didst thou what neededst thou to care for the frowns of men or Devils but when he once turn'd his face from thee or bent his brows upon thee this this was worse then death It is no marvell now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Father's Face was eclipsed from thee by the interposition of our sins How should there be light in the world without when the God of the world the Father of lights complains of the want of light within That word of thine O Saviour was enough to fetch the Sun down out of Heaven and to dissolve the whole frame of Nature when thou criedst My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh what pangs were these dear Jesu that drew from thee this complaint Thou well knewest nothing could be more cordiall to thine enemies then to hear this sad language from thee they could see but the outside of thy sufferings never could they have conceived so deep an anguish of thy Soul if thy own lips had not expressed it Yet as not regarding their triumph thou thus pourest out thy sorrow and when so much is uttered who can conceive what is felt How is it then with thee O Saviour that thou thus astonishest men and Angels with so wofull a quiritation Had thy God left thee Thou not long since saidst I and my Father are one Are ye now severed Let this thought be as far from my Soul as my Soul from Hell No more can thy Blessed Father be separated from thee then from his own Essence His Union with thee is eternall his Vision was intercepted He could not withdraw his Presence he would withdraw the influence of his comfort Thou the Second Adam stoodst for mankind upon this Tree of the Cross as the First Adam stood and fell for mankind under the Tree of offence Thou barest our sins thy Father saw us in thee and would punish us in thee thee for us how could he but withhold comfort where he intended chastisement Herein therefore he seems to forsake thee for the present in that he would not deliver thee from that bitter Passion which thou wouldst undergoe for us O Saviour hadst thou not been thus forsaken we had perished thy dereliction is our safety and however our narrow Souls are not capable of the conceit of thy pain and horrour yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whilst thou canst say My God He is so thy God as he cannot be ours all our right is by Adoption thine by Nature thou art one with him in eternall Essence we come in by Grace and mercifull election yet whilst thou shalt enable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whilst I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou pouredst out upon thy Persecutours They rejoyce in thy death and triumph in thy misery and scoff at thee in both In stead of calling down fire from Heaven upon them thou heapest coals of fire upon their heads Father forgive them for they know not what they doe They blaspheme thee thou prayest for them they scorn thou pitiest they sin against thee thou prayest for their forgiveness they profess their malice thou pleadest their ignorance O compassion without example without measure fit for the Son of God the Saviour of men Wicked and foolish Jews ye would be miserable he will not let you ye would fain pull upon your selves the guilt of his bloud he deprecates it ye kill he sues for your remission and life His tongue cries louder then his bloud Father forgive them O Saviour thou couldst not but be heard Those who out of ignorance and simplicity thus persecuted thee find the happy issue of thine intercession Now I see whence it was that three thousand souls were converted soon after at one Sermon It was not Peter's speech it was thy prayer that was thus effectuall Now they have grace to know and confess whence they have both forgiveness and salvation and can recompense their blasphemies with thanksgiving What sin is there Lord whereof I can despair of the remission or what offence can I be unwilling to remit when thou prayest for the forgiveness of thy murtherers and blasphemers There is no day so long but hath his evening At last O Blessed Saviour thou art drawing to an end of these painfull Sufferings when spent with toil and torment thou criest out I thirst How shouldst thou doe other O dear Jesu how shouldst thou doe other then thirst The night thou hadst spent in watching in prayer in agony in thy conveyance from the Garden to Jerusalem from Annas to Caiaphas from Caiaphas to Pilate in thy restless answers in buffetings and stripes the day in arraignments in haling from place to place in scourgings in stripping in robing and disrobing in bleeding in tugging under thy Cross in woundings and distension in pain and passion No marvell if thou thirstedst Although there was more in this drought then thy need It was no less requisite thou shouldst thirst then that thou shouldst die Both were upon the same predetermination both upon the same prediction How else should that word be verified Psal 22.14 15. All my bones are out of joynt my heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels My strength is dried up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought me into the dust of death Had it not been to make up that word whereof one jot cannot pass though thou hadst felt this thirst yet thou hadst not bewrayed it Alas what could it avail to bemoan thy wants to insulting enemies whose sport was thy misery How should they pity thy thirst that pitied not thy bloudshed It was not their favour that thou expectedst herein but their conviction O Saviour how can we thy sinfull servants think much to be exercised with hunger and thirst when we hear thee thus plain Thou that not long since proclaimedst in the Temple If any man thirst let him come to me and drink He that believeth in me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living waters now thy self thirstest Thou in whom we believe complainest to want some drops thou hadst the command of all the waters both above the firmament and below it yet thou wouldst thirst Even so Lord thou that wouldst die for us wouldst thirst for
attend thy rising O Saviour thou laiest down in weakness thou risest in power and glory thou laiest down like a man thou risest like a God What a lively image hast thou herein given me of the dreadfull majesty of the generall Resurrection and thy second appearance Then not the earth onely but the powers of Heaven shall be shaken not some few graves shall be open and some Saints appear but all the bars of death shall be broken and all that sleep in their graves shall awake and stand up from the dead before thee not some one Angel shall descend but thou the great Angel of the Covenant attended with thousand thousands of those mighty Spirits And if these stout Souldiers were so filled with terrour at the feeling of an Earthquake and the sight of an Angel that they had scarce breath left in them for the time to witness them alive where shall thine enemies appear O Lord in the day of thy terrible appearance when the earth shall reel and vanish and the elements shall be on a flame about their ears and the Heavens shall wrap up as a scroll O God thou mightest have removed this stone by the force of thine Earthquake as well as rive other rocks yet thou wouldst rather use the ministery of an Angel or thou that gavest thy self life and gavest being both to the stone and to the earth couldst more easily have removed the stone then moved the earth but it was thy pleasure to make use of an Angel's hand And now he that would ask why thou wouldst doe it rather by an Angel then by thy self may as well ask why thou didst not rather give thy Law by thine own immediate hand then by the ministration of Angels why by an Angel thou struckest the Israelites with plagues the Assyrians with the sword why an Angel appeared to comfort thee after thy Temptation and Agony when thou wert able to comfort thy self why thou usest the influences of Heaven to fruiten the earth why thou imployest Second causes in all events when thou couldst doe all things alone It is good reason thou shouldst serve thy self of thine own neither is there any ground to be required whether of their motion or rest besides thy will Thou didst raise thy self the Angels removed the stone They that could have no hand in thy Resurrection yet shall have an hand in removing outward impediments not because thou neededst but because thou wouldest like as thou alone didst raise Lazarus thou badest others let him loose Works of Omnipotency thou reservest to thine own immediate performance ordinary actions thou doest by subordinate means Although this act of the Angels was not merely with respect to thee but partly to those devout Women to ease them of their care to manifest unto them thy Resurrection So officious are those glorious Spirits not onely to thee their Maker but even to the meanest of thy servants especially in the furtherance of all their spirituall designs Let us bring our Odours they will be sure to roll away the stone Why do not we imitate them in our forwardness to promote each others Salvation We pray to doe thy will here as they doe in Heaven if we do not act our wishes we do but mock thee in our Devotions How glorious did this Angel of thine appear The terrified Souldiers saw his face like lightning both they and the Women saw his garments shining bright and white as snow such a presence became his errand It was fit that as in thy Passion the Sun was darkened and all creatures were clad with heaviness so in thy Resurrection the best of thy creatures should testifie their joy and exultation in the brightness of their habit that as we on Festivall-days put on our best cloaths so thine Angels should celebrate this blessed Festivity with a meet representation of Glory They could not but injoy our joy to see the work of man's Redemption thus fully finished and if there be mirth in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner how much more when a world of sinners is perfectly ransomed from death and restored to Salvation Certainly if but one or two appeared all rejoyced all triumphed Neither could they but be herein sensible of their own happy advantage who by thy mediation are confirmed in their glorious estate since thou by the bloud of thy Cross and power of thy Resurrection hast reconciled things not in earth onely but in Heaven But above all other the Love of thee their God and Saviour must needs heighten their joy and make thy Glory theirs It is their perpetuall work to praise thee how much more now when such an occasion was offered as never had been since the world began never could be after when thou the God of Spirits hadst vanquished all the spirituall powers of darkness when thou the Lord of Life hadst conquered death for thee and all thine so as they may now boldly insult over their last enemy O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Certainly if Heaven can be capable of an increase of joy and felicity never had those Blessed Spirits so great a cause of triumph and gratulation as in this day of thy glorious Resurrection How much more O dear Jesu should we men whose flesh thou didst assume unite revive for whose sake and in whose stead thou didst vouchsafe to suffer and die whose arrerages thou payedst in death and acquittedst in thy Resurrection whose Souls are discharged whose Bodies shall be raised by the power of thy rising how much more should we think we have cause to be overjoyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceivable Mercy Lo now how weak soever I am in my self yet in the confidence of this victorious Resurrection of my Saviour I dare boldly challenge and defie you O all ye adverse Powers Doe the worst ye can to my Soul in despite of you it shall be safe Is it Sin that threats me Behold this Resurrection of my Redeemer publishes my discharge My Surety was arrested and cast into the prison of his Grave had not the utmost farthing of mine arrerages been paid he could not have come forth He is come forth the Sum is fully satisfied What danger can there be of a discharged Debt Is it the Wrath of God Wherefore is that but for sin If my sin be defrayed that quarrell is at an end and if my Saviour suffered it for me how can I fear to suffer it in my self That infinite Justice hates to be twice paid He is risen therefore he hath satisfied Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen Is it Death it self Lo my Saviour that overcame death by dying hath triumph'd over him in his Resurrection How can I now fear a conquered enemy What harm is there in the Serpent but for his sting The sting of death is sin that is pulled out by my powerfull Redeemer it cannot now
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