of our neglect It is not more the shame of Israel then the glory of the Centurion that our Saviour says I have not found so great faith in Israel Had Israel yielded any equall faith it could not have been unespied of these All-seeing eyes yet though their Helps were so much greater their Faith was less and God never gives more then he requires Where we have laid our Tillage and Compost and Seed who would not look for a Crop but if the uncultured Fallow yield more how justly is that unanswerable ground near to a curse Our Saviour did not mutter this censorious testimony to himself not whisper it to his Disciples but he turned him about to the people and spake it in their ears that he might at once work their shame and emulation In all other things except spirituall our self-love makes us impatient of equalls much less can we endure to be out-stripped by those who are our professed inferiours It is well if any thing can kindle in us holy ambitions Dull and base are the spirits of that man that can abide to see another overtake him in the way and out-run him to Heaven He that both wrought this Faith and wondred at it doth now reward it Go thy ways and as thou hast believed so be it unto thee Never was any Faith unseen of Christ never was any seen without allowance never was any allowed without remuneration The measure of our receits in the matter of favour is the proportion of our belief The infinite Mercy of God which is ever like it self follows but one rule in his gift to us the Faith that he gives us Give us O God to believe and be it to us as thou wilt it shall be to us above that we will The Centurion sues for his Servant and Christ says So be it unto thee The Servant's health is the benefit of the Master and the Master's Faith is the health of the Servant And if the Prayers of an earthly Master prevailed so much with the Son of God for the recovery of a Servant how shall the intercession of the Son of God prevail with his Father in Heaven for us that are his impotent Children and Servants upon Earth What can we want O Saviour whilst thou suest for us He that hath given thee for us can deny thee nothing for us can deny us nothing for thee In thee we are happy and shall be glorious To thee O thou mighty Redeemer of Israel with thine Eternal Father together with thy Blessed Spirit one God infinite and incomprehensible be given all Praise Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen XIII The Widow's Son raised THE favours of our beneficent Saviour were at the least contiguous No sooner hath he raised the Centurion's Servant from his Bed then he raises the Widow's Son from his Bier The fruitfull clouds are not ordained to fall all in one field Nain must partake of the bounty of Christ as well as Cana or Capernaum And if this Sun were fixed in one Orb yet it diffuseth heat and light to all the world It is not for any place to ingross the Messengers of the Gospel whose errand is universal This immortal Seed may not fall all in one furrow The little City of Nain stood under the hill of Hermon near unto Tabor but now it is watered with better dews from above the Doctrine and Miracles of a Saviour Not for state but for the more evidence of the work is our Saviour attended with a large train so entering into the gate of that walled City as if he meant to besiege their Faith by his Power and to take it His providence hath so contrived his journey that he meets with the sad pomp of a Funeral A wofull Widow attended with her weeping neighbours is following her onely Son to the grave There was nothing in this spectacle that did not command compassion A young man in the flower in the strength of his age swallowed up by death Our decrepit age both expects death and solicits it but vigorous youth looks strangely upon that grim Serjeant of God Those mellow apples that fall alone from the tree we gather up with contentment we chide to have the unripe unseasonably beaten down with cudgels But more a young man the onely Son the onely Child of his mother No condition can make it other then grievous for a well-natur'd mother to part with her own bowels yet surely store is some mitigation of loss Amongst many children one may be more easily missed for still we hope the surviving may supply the comforts of the dead But when all our hopes and joys must either live or die in one the loss of that one admits of no consolation When God would describe the most passionate expression of sorrow that can fall into the miserable he can but say O daughter of my people gird thee with sackcloath and wallow thy self in ashes make lamentation and bitter mourning as for thine onely Son Such was the loss such was the sorrow of this disconsolate mother neither words nor tears can suffice to discover it Yet more had she been aided by the counsel and supportation of a loving Yoke-fellow this burthen might have seemed less intolerable A good Husband may make amends for the loss of a Son Had the Root been left to her intire she might better have spared the Branch now both are cut up all the stay of her life is gone and she seems abandoned to a perfect misery And now when she gave her self up for a forlorn mourner past all capacity of redress the God of comfort meets her pities her relieves her Here was no Solicitour but his own Compassion In other occasions he was sought and sued to The Centurion comes to him for a Servant the Ruler for a Son Jairus for a Daughter the neighbours for the Paralytick here he seeks the Patient and offers the Cure unrequested Whilst we have to doe with the Father of mercies our Afflictions are the most powerfull suitours No tears no prayers can move him so much as his own commiseration O God none of our secret sorrows can be either hid from thine eyes or kept from thine heart and when we are past all our hopes all possibilities of help then art thou nearest to us for deliverance Here was a conspiration of all parts to mercy The Heart had compassion the Mouth said Weep not the Feet went to the Bier the Hand touched the Coffin the power of the Deity raised the dead What the Heart felt was secret to it self the Tongue therefore expresses it in words of comfort Weep not Alas what are words to so strong and just passions To bid her not to weep that had lost her onely Son was to perswade her to be miserable and not feel it to feel and not regard it to regard and yet to smother it Concealment doth not remedy but aggravate sorrow That with the counsel of not weeping therefore she might see cause of
Serpent then of the Dove There is a time when we must preach Christ on the house-top there is a time when we must speak him in the ear and as it were with our lips shut Secrecy hath no less use then divulgation She said enough The Master is come and calleth for thee What an happy word was this which was here spoken what an high favour is this that is done that the Lord of Life should personally come and call for Mary yet such as is not appropriated to her Thou comest to us still O Saviour if not in thy bodily presence yet in thy spiritual thou callest us still if not in thy personal voice yet in thine Ordinances It is our fault if we doe not as this good woman arise quickly and come to thee Her friends were there about her who came purposely to condole with her her heart was full of heaviness yet so soon as she hears mention of Christ she forgets friends Brother grief cares thoughts and hasts to his presence Still was Jesus standing in the place where Martha left him Whether it be noted to express Mary's speed or his own wise and gracious resolutions his presence in the Village had perhaps invited danger and set off the intended witnesses of the work or it may be to set forth his zealous desire to dispatch the errand he came for that as Abraham's faithfull servant would not receive any courtesie from the house of Bethuel till he had done his Master's business concerning Rebeccah so thou O Saviour wouldst not so much as enter into the house of these two Sisters in Bethany till thou hadst effected this glorious work which occasioned thee thither It was thy meat and drink to doe the will of thy Father thy best entertainment was within thy self How do we follow thee if we suffer either pleasures or profits to take the wall of thy services So good women were well worthy of kind friends No doubt Bethany being not two miles distant from Jerusalem could not but be furnished with good acquaintance from the City these knowing the dearness and hearing of the death of Lazarus came over to comfort the sad Sisters Charity together with the common practice of that Nation calls them to this duty All our distresses expect these good offices from those that love us but of all others Death as that which is the extremest of evils and makes the most fearfull havock in families cities kingdoms worlds The complaint was grievous I look'd for some to comfort me but there was none It is some kind of ease to sorrow to have partners as a burthen is lightned by many shoulders or as clouds scattered into many drops easily vent their moisture into air Yea the very presence of friends abates grief The perill that arises to the heart from Passion is the fixedness of it when like a corrosiving plaister it eats in into the sore Some kind of remedy it is that it may breath out in good society These friendly neighbours seeing Mary hasten forth make haste to follow her Martha went forth before I saw none goe after her Mary stirs they are at her heels Was it for that Martha being the elder Sister and the huswife of the family might stir about with less observation or was it that Mary was the more passionate and needed the more heedy attendence However their care and intentiveness is truely commendable they came to comfort her they doe what they came for It contents them not to sit still and chat within doors but they wait on her at all turns Perturbations of Mind are diseases good keepers do not onely tend the Patient in bed but when he sits up when he tries to walk all his motions have their carefull assistence We are no true friends if our endeavours of the redress of distempers in them we love be not assiduous and unweariable It was but a loving suspicion She is gone to the grave to weep there They well knew how apt passionate minds are to take all occasions to renew their sorrow every Object affects them When she saw but the Chamber of her dead Brother straight she thinks There was Lazarus wont to lie and then she wept afresh when the Table There Lazarus was wont to sit and then new tears arise when the Garden There Lazarus had wont to walk and now again she weeps How much more do these friends suppose the Passions would be stirred with the sight of the Grave when she must needs think There is Lazarus O Saviour if the place of the very dead corps of our friend have power to draw our hearts thither and to affect us more deeply how should our hearts be drawn to and affected with Heaven where thou sittest at the right hand of thy Father There O thou which wert dead and art alive is thy Body and thy Soul present and united to thy glorious Deity Thither O thither let our access be not to mourn there where is no place for sorrow but to rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious and more and more to long for that thy beatificall presence Their indulgent love mistook Mary's errand their thoughts how kind soever were much too low whilst they supposed she went to a dead Brother she went to a living Saviour The world hath other conceits of the actions and carriage of the regenerate then are truly intended setting such constructions upon them as their own carnall reason suggests they think them dying when behold they live sorrowfull when they are alwaies rejoycing poor whilst they make many rich How justly do we appeal from them as incompetent Judges and pity those mis-interpretations which we cannot avoid Both the Sisters met Christ not both in one posture Mary is still noted as for more Passion so for more Devotion she that before sate at the feet of Jesus now falls at his feet That presence had wont to be familiar to her and not without some outward homeliness now it fetches her upon her knees in an awfull veneration whether out of a reverent acknowledgment of the secret excellency and power of Christ or out of a dumb intimation of that suit concerning her dead Brother which she was afraid to utter The very gesture it self was supplicatory What position of body can be so fit for us when we make our address to our Saviour It is an irreligious unmannerliness for us to goe less Where the heart is affected with an awfull acknowledgment of Majesty the body cannot but bow Even before all her neighbours of Jerusalem doth Mary thus fall down at the feet of Jesus so many witnesses as she had so many spies she had of that forbidden observance It was no less then Excommunication for any body to confess him yet good Mary not fearing the informations that might be given by those Jewish Gossips adores him and in her silent gesture says as much as her Sister had spoken before Thou art the Christ the Son of God Those that would give Christ
in his Covetousness and Theft those sinfull habits could not be without that authour of ill then in his damnable resolution and plot of so hainous a conspiracy against Christ Yet now as if it were new to begin After the sop Satan entred As in every gross sin which we entertain we give harbour to that evil Spirit so in every degree of growth in wickedness new hold is taken by him of the heart No sooner is the foot over the threshold then we enter into the house when we pass thence into the inner rooms we make still but a perfect entrance At first Satan entred to make the house of Judas's heart his own now he enters into it as his own The first purpose of sin opens the gates to Satan consent admits him into the entry full resolution of sin gives up the keys to his hands and puts him into absolute possession What a plain difference there is betwixt the regenerate and evil heart Satan lays siege to the best by his Temptations and sometimes upon battery and breach made enters the other admits him by willing composition When he is entred upon the Regenerate he is entertained with perpetuall skirmishes and by an holy violence at last repulsed in the other he is plausibly received and freely commandeth Oh the admirable meekness of this Lamb of God! I see not a frown I hear not a check but What thou doest doe quickly Why do we startle at our petty wrongs and swell with anger and break into furious revenges upon every occasion when the pattern of our Patience lets not fall one harshword upon so foul and bloudy a Traitour Yea so fairly is this carried that the Disciples as yet can apprehend no change they innocently think of commodities to be bought when Christ speaks of their Master sold and as one that longs to be out of pain hastens the pace of his irreclamable conspiratour That thou doest doe quickly It is one thing to say Doe what thou intendest and another to say Doe quickly what thou doest There was villany in the deed the speed had no sin the time was harmless whilst the man and the act were wicked O Judas how happy had it been for thee if thou hadst never done what thou perfidiously intendedst but since thou wilt needs doe it delay is but a torment That steely heart yet relents not the obfirmed Traitour knows his way to the High Priest's hall and to the Garden the watchword is already given Hail Master and a kiss Yet more Hypocrisy yet more presumption upon so overstrained a lenity How knewest thou O thou false Traitour whether that sacred cheek would suffer it self to be defiled with thine impure touch Thou well foundest thy treachery was unmasked thine heart could not be so false to thee as not to tell thee how hatefull thou wert Goe kiss and adore those silverlings which thou art too sure of the Master whom thou hast sold is not thine But oh the impudence of a deplored sinner That tongue which hath agreed to sell his Master dares say Hail and those lips that have passed the compact of his death dare offer to kiss him whom they had covenanted to kill It was God's charge of old Kiss the Son lest he be angry O Saviour thou hadst reason to be angry with this kiss the scourges the thorns the nails the spear of thy Murtherers were not so painfull so piercing as this touch of Judas all these were in this one alone The stabs of an Enemy cannot be so grievous as the skin-deep wounds of a Disciple XLV The Agony WHat a Preface do I find to my Saviour's Passion an Hymn and an Agony a chearfull Hymn and an Agony no less sorrowfull An Hymn begins both to raise and testify the courageous resolutions of his Suffering an Agony follows to shew that he was truly sensible of those extremities wherewith he was resolved to grapple All the Disciples bore their part in that Hymn it was fit they should all see his comfortable and Divine Magnanimity wherewith he entred into those sad lists onely Three of them shall be allowed to be the witnesses of his Agony onely those three that had been the witnesses of his glorious Transfiguration That sight had well fore-arm'd and prepared them for this how could they be dismay'd to see his trouble who there saw his Majesty how could they be dismay'd to see his Body now sweat which they had then seen to shine how could they be daunted to see him now accosted with Judas and his train whom they then saw attended with Moses and Elias how could they be discouraged to hear the reproaches of base men when they had heard the voice of God to him from that excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Now before these eyes this Sun begins to be over-cast with clouds He began to be sorrowfull and very heavy Many sad thoughts for mankind had he secretly hatched and yet smothered in his own breast now his grief is too great to keep in My soul is exceeding sorrowfull even unto death O Saviour what must thou needs feel when thou saidst so Feeble minds are apt to bemoan themselves upon light occasions the grief must needs be violent that causeth a strong heart to break forth into a passionate complaint Woe is me what a word is this for the Son of God Where is that Comforter which thou promisedst to send to others where is that thy Father of all mercies and God of all comfort in whose presence is the fulness of joy and at whose right hand there are pleasures for evermore where are those constant and chearfull resolutions of a fearless walking through the valley of the shadow of death Alas if that face were not hid from thee whose essence could not be disunited these pangs could not have been The Sun was withdrawn awhile that there might be a cool though not a dark night as in the world so in thy breast withdrawn in respect of sight not of being It was the hardest piece of thy sufferings that thou must be disconsolate But to whom dost thou make this moan O thou Saviour of men Hard is that man driven that is fain to complain to his inferiours Had Peter or James or John thus bewailed himself to thee there had been ease to their Soul in venting it self thou hadst been both apt to pity them and able to relieve them but now in that thou lamentest thy case to them alas what issue couldst thou expect They might be astonish'd with thy grief but there is neither power in their hands to free thee from those sorrows nor power in their compassion to mitigate them Nay in this condition what could all the Angels of Heaven as of themselves doe to succour thee What strength could they have but from thee What creature can help when thou complainest It must be onely the stronger that can aid the weak Old and holy Simeon could fore-say to thy