the Judge of hearts taxes him for little Faith Our mountains are but moats to God Would my heart have served me to dare the doing of this that Peter did Durst I have set my foot where he did O Saviour if thou foundest cause to censure the weaknesse and poverty of his Faith what maist thou well say to mine They mistake that think thou wilt take up with any thing Thou lookest for firmitude and vigour in those Graces which thou wilt allow in thy best Disciples no lesse then truth The first steps were confident there was fear in the next Oh the sudden alteration of our affections of our dispositions One pace varies our spiritual condition What hold is there of so fickle creatures if we be left never so little to our selves As this lower world wherein we are is the region of mutability so are we the living pieces of it subject to a perpetual change It is for the blessed Saints and Angels above to be fixed in good Whiles we are here there can be no constancy expected from us but in variablenesse As well as our Saviour loves Peter yet he chides him It is the fruit of his favour and mercy that we escape judgment not that we escape reproof Had not Peter found grace with his Master he had been suffered to sink in silence now he is saved with a check There may be more love in frowns then in smiles whom he loves he chastises What is chiding but a verbal castigation and what is chastisement but a reall chiding Correct me O Lord yet in thy judgment not in thy fury Oh let the righteous God smite me when I offend with his gracious reproofs these shall be a precious oyle that shall not break my head The bloody Issue healed THE time was O Saviour when a worthy woman offered to touch thee and was forbidden now a meaner touches thee with approbation and incouragement Yet as there was much difference in that Body of thine which was the Object of that touch being now mortal and passible then impassible and immortal so there was in the Agents this a stranger that a familiar this obscure that famous The same actions vary with time and other circumstances and accordingly receive their dislike or allowance Doubtless thou hadst herein no small respect to the faith of Jairus unto whose house thou wert going That good man had but one onely Daughter which lay sick in the beginning of his suit ere the end lay dead Whiles she lived his hope lived her death disheartned it It was a great work that thou meantest to doe for him it was a great word that thou saidst to him Fear not believe and she shall be made whole To make this good by the touch of the verge of thy garment thou revivedst one from the verge of death How must Jairus needs now think He who by the virtue of his garment can pull this woman out of the paws of death which hath been twelve years dying can as well by the power of his word pull my daughter who hath been twelve years living out of the jaws of death which hath newly seised on her It was fit the good Ruler should be raised up with this handsel of thy Divine power whom he came to solicit That thou mightest lose no time thou curedst in thy passage The Sun stands not still to give his influences but diffuses them in his ordinary motion How shall we imitate thee if we suffer our hands to be out of ure with good Our life goes away with our time we lose that which we improve not The Patient laboured of an Issue of blood a Disease that had not more pain then shame nor more natural infirmity then Legal impurity Time added to her grief twelve long years had she languished under this wofull complaint Besides the tediousness diseases must needs get head by continuance and so much more both weaken Nature and strengthen themselves by how much longer they afflict us So it is in the Soul so in the State Vices which are the Sicknesses of both when they grow inveterate have a strong plea for their abode and uncontrollablenesse Yet more to mend the matter Poverty which is another disease was superadded to her sicknesse She had spent all she had upon Physicians Whiles she had wherewith to make much of her self and to procure good tendance choice diet and all the succours of a distressed languishment she could not but finde some mitigation of her sorrow but now want began to pinch her no lesse then her distemper and helpt to make her perfectly miserable Yet could she have parted from her substance with ease her complaint had been the lesse Could the Physicians have given her if not health yet relaxation and painlesnesse her means had not been mis-bestowed but now she suffered many things from them many an unpleasing potion many tormenting incisions and divulsions did she endure from their hands the Remedy was equal in trouble to the Disease Yet had the cost and pain been never so great could she have hereby purchased health the match had been happy all the world were no price for this commodity but alas her estate was the worse her body not the better her money was wasted not her disease Art could give her neither cure nor hope It were injurious to blame that noble Science for that it alwaies speeds not Notwithstanding all those soveraign remedies men must in their times sicken and die Even the miraculous Gifts of Healing could not preserve the owners from disease and dissolution It were pity but that this woman should have been thus sick the nature the durablenesse cost pain incurablenesse of her disease both sent her to seek Christ and moved Christ to her cure Our extremities drive us to our Saviour his love draws him to be most present and helpfull to our extremities When we are forsaken of all succours and hopes we are fittest for his redresse Never are we nearer to help then when we despair of help There is no fear no danger but in our own insensiblenesse This woman was a stranger to Christ it seems she had never seen him The report of his Miracles had lifted her up to such a confidence of his power and mercy as that she said in her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole The shame of her disease stopt her mouth from any verbal suit Had she been acknown of her infirmity she had been shunned and abhorred and disdainfully put back of all the beholders as doubtlesse where she was known the Law forced her to live apart Now she conceals both her grief and her desire and her faith and only speaks where she may be bold within her self If I may but touch the hem of his garment I shall be whole I seek not mysteries in the virtue of the hem rather then of the garment Indeed it was God's command to Israel that they should be marked not only in their
Pharisees came to cavil and carp at his teaching With what a pretence of zeal and justice yet do they put themselves into Christs 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 Mans offence was equal if not more because he should have had more strength of resistance 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 merciful disposition might more probably incline to compassionate her weakness rather then the stronger vessel Or was it rather out of partiality Was it not then as now that the weakest soonest suffers and impotency layes us open to the malice of an enemy Small flies hang in the webs whiles wasps break through without control 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 whiles 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 proclamed with hootings and basons Oh the impudence of those men who can make merry professions of their own beastliness and boast of the shameful trophees of their Lust Methinks I see this miserable Adulteress how she stands confounded amidst that gazing and disdainful 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 bosome tells me All this is done but to tempt him Even the falsest hearts will have the plausiblest mouths like to Solomon's Curtezan 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 whom ye serve not he whom ye tempt only 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 passes 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 finde 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 analogie it holds thus It is flatly commanded in the case of a Damsel betrothed to an Husband and found not to be a Virgin in the case of a Damsel betrothed who being defiled in the city cryed not Tradition and custome made up the rest obtaining out of this ground that all Adulterers should be executed by lapidation The antienter punishment was burning death alwaies though in divers forms I shame to think that Christians should slight that sin which both Jewes 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 meanes but to mount up to the supreme original of Justice How reverent soever an opinion was had of Moses he cannot be thus named without a shameful undervaluing of the royal Law of his Maker There is no mortal man whose autority 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 Christs though delivered by our weakness whosoever be the Cryer the Proclamation is the King 's of Heaven Whiles it goes for ours it is no marvel if it lye 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 Moses's disciples and We know that God spake to Moses It had been quarrel enough to oppose so known a Prophet Still I finde it the drift of the enemies of truth to set Christ and Moses together by the eares 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 faithful as a Servant Christ as a Son A faithful servant cannot be but 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 Doctor of the Church Whiles we hear from others What say Fathers what say Councils let them hear from us What saiest 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 Doctors 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 wisdome 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 bowes 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 only 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 their eagerness might justly draw upon them an insuing shame The more unwillingness they saw in Christ to give his answer the more pressive and importunate they were to draw it from him Now as forced by their so zealous irritation our Saviour rouzeth up himself and gives it them home with a reprehensory and stinging satisfaction He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her As if his very action had said I was loath to have shamed you and therefore could have been willing not to have heard your ill-meant motion but since you will needs have it and by your vehemence force my justice I must tell you there is not one of you but is as faulty as she whom ye accuse there is no difference but that your sin is smothered in secrecy hers is brought forth into the light Ye had more need to make your own peace by an humble repentance then to urge severity against another I deny not but Moses hath justly from God imposed the penalty of death upon such hainous offences but what then would become of you If death be her due yet not by those your unclean hands your hearts know you are not honest enough to accuse Lo not the bird but the fouler is taken He saies not Let her be stoned this had been against the course of his Mercy he saies not Let her not be stoned this had been against the Law of Moses Now he so answers that both his Justice and Mercy are entire she dismissed they shamed It was the manner of the Jewes in those hainous crimes that were punished with Lapidation that the witnesses and accusers should be the first that should lay hands upon the guilty well doth our Saviour therefore choak these accusers with the conscience of their so foul incompetency With what face with what heart could they stone their own sin in another person Honesty is too mean a term These Scribes and Pharisees were noted for extraordinary and admired Holiness the outside of their lives was not only inoffensive but Saint-like and exemplary Yet that all-seeing eye of the Son of God which found folly in the Angels hath much more found wickedness in these glorious Professors It is not for nothing that his eyes are like a flame of fire What secret is there which he searches not Retire your selves O ye foolish sinners into your inmost closets yea if you can into the center of the earth his eye follows you and observes all your carriages no bolt no barre no darkness can keep him out No thief was ever so impudent as to steal in the very face of the Judge O God let me see my self seen by thee and I shall not dare to offend Besides notice here is exprobration These mens sins as they had been secret so they were forgotten It is long since they were done neither did they think to have heard any more news of them And now when time and security had quite worn them out of thought he that shall once be their Judge calls them to a back-reckoning One time or other shall that just God lay our sins in our dish and make us possess the sins of our youth These things thou didst and I kept silence and thou thoughtest I was like unto thy self but I will reprove thee and set them in order before thee The penitent mans sin lies before him for his humiliation the impenitents for his shame and confusion The act of sin is transient not so the guilt that will stick by us and return upon us either in the height of our security or the depth of our misery when we shall be least able to bear it How just may it be with God to take us at advantages and then to lay his arrest upon us when we are laid up upon a former suit It is but just there should be a requisition of innocence in them that prosecute the vices of others The offender
is worthy of stoning but who shall cast them How ill would they become hands as guilty as her own What doe they but smite themselves who punish their own offences in other men Nothing is more unjust or absurd then for the beam to censure the moat the oven to upbraid the kiln It is a false and vagrant zeal that begins not first at home Well did our Saviour know how bitter and strong a pill he had given to these false Justiciaries and now he will take leisure to see how it wrought Whiles therefore he gives time to them to swallow it and put it over he returns to his old gesture of a seeming inadvertencie How sped the receit I do no see any one of them stand out with Christ and plead his own innocency and yet these men which is very remarkable placed the fulfilling or violation of the Law only in the outward act Their hearts misgave them that if they should have stood out in contestation with Christ he would have utterly shamed them by displaying their old and secret sins and have so convinced them by undeniable circumstances that they should never have clawed of the reproach And therefore when they heard it being convicted by their own conscience they went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last There might seem to be some kinde of mannerly order in this guilty departure not all at once lest they should seem violently chased away by this charge of Christ now their slinking away one by one may seem to carry a shew of a deliberate and voluntary discession The eldest first The ancienter is fitter to give then take example and the yonger could think it no shame to follow the steps of a grave fore-man O wonderful power of Conscience Man can no more stand out against it then it can stand out against God The Almighty whose substitute is set in our bosome sets it on work to accuse It is no denying when that sayes we are guilty when that condemns us in vain are we acquitted by the world With what bravery did these Hypocrites come to set upon Christ with what triumph did they insult upon that guilty soul Now they are thunder-struck with their own Conscience and drop away confounded and well is he that can run away furthest from his own shame No wicked man needs to seek out of himself for a Judge Accuser Witness Tormentor No sooner do these Hypocrites hear of their sins from the mouth of Christ then they are gone Had they been sincerely touched with a true remorse they would have rather come to him upon their knees and have said Lord we know and finde that thou knowest our secret sins this argues thy Divine Omniscience Thou that art able to know our sins art able to remit them O pardon the iniquities of thy servants Thou that accusest us do thou also acquit us But now instead hereof they turn their back upon their Saviour and haste away An impenitent man cares not how little he hath either of the presence of God or of the mention of his sins O fools if ye could run away from God it were somewhat but whiles ye move in him what doe ye whither goe ye Ye may run from his Mercy ye cannot but run upon his Judgment Christ is left alone Alone in respect of these complainants not alone in respect of the multitude there yet stands the mournfull Adulteresse She might have gone forth with them no body constrained her to stay but that which sent them away stayed her Conscience She knew her guiltinesse was publickly accused and durst not be by her self denied as one that was therefore fastened there by her own guilty heart she stirs not till she may receive a dismission Our Saviour was not so busie in writing but that he read the while the guilt and absence of those accusers he that knew what they had done knew no less what they did what they would doe Yet as if the matter had been strange to him he lifts up himself and saies Woman where are thy accusers How well was this sinner to be left there Could she be in a safer place then before the Tribunal of a Saviour Might she have chosen her refuge whither should she rather have fled O happy we if when we are convinced in our selves of our sins we can set our selves before that Judge who is our surety our Advocate our Redeemer our ransome our peace Doubtlesse she stood doubtfull betwixt hope and fear Hope in that she saw her accusers gone Fear in that she knew what she had deserved and now whiles she trembles in exspectation of a sentence she hears Woman where are thy accusers Wherein our Saviour intends the satisfaction of all the hearers of all the beholders that they might apprehend the guiltiness and therefore the unfitness of the accusers and might well see there was no warrantable ground of his further proceeding against her Two things are necessary for the execution of a Malefactor Evidence Sentence the one from Witnesses the other from the Judge Our Saviour asks for both The accusation and proof must draw on the sentence the sentence must proceed upon the evidence of the proof Where are thy accusers hath no man condemned thee Had sentence passed legally upon the Adulteresse doubtlesse our Saviour would not have acquitted her For as he would not intrude upon others offices so he would not crosse or violate the justice done by others But now finding the coast clear he saies Neither do I condemn thee What Lord Dost thou then shew favour to foul offenders Art thou rather pleased that grosse sins should be blanched and sent away with a gentle connivency Far far be this from the perfection of thy Justice He that hence argues Adulteries not punishable by death let him argue the unlawfulness of dividing of inheritances because in the case of the two wrangling brethren thou saidst Who made me a divider of inheritances Thou declinedst the office thou didst not dislike the act either of parting lands or punishing offenders Neither was here any absolution of the woman from a sentence of death but a dismission of her from thy sentence which thou knewest not proper for thee to pronounce Herein hadst thou respect to thy calling and to the main purpose of thy coming into the world which was neither to be an arbiter of Civil Causes nor a judge of Criminal but a Saviour of mankinde not to destroy the Body but to save the Soul And this was thy care in this miserable Offender Goe and sin no more How much more doth it concern us to keep within the bounds of our vocation and not to dare to trench upon the functions of others How can we ever enough magnifie thy Mercy who takest no pleasure in the death of a sinner who so camest to save that thou challengest us of unkindness for being miserable Why will ye die O house of Israel But O Son of God though
supplied by a rich joynture it is some allay to the grief that the hand is left full though the bed be empty This woman was not more desolate then needy Yet this poor widow gives And what gives she An offering like her self two mites or in our language two half-farthing-tokens Alas good woman who was poorer then thy self wherefore was that Corban but for the relief of such as thou who should receive if such give Thy mites were something to thee nothing to the Treasury How ill is that gift bestowed which dis-furnisheth thee and addes nothing to the common stock Some thrifty neighbour might perhaps have suggested this probable discouragement Jesus publishes and applauds her bounty He called his Disciples and said unto them Verily I say unto you this woman hath cast in more then they all Whiles the rich put in their offering I see no Disciples called it was enough that Christ noted their gifts alone but when the Widow comes with her two mites now the domesticks of Christ are summoned to assemble and taught to admire this munificence a solemn preface makes way to her praise and her Mites are made more precious then the others Talents She gave more then they all More not only in respect of the Minde of the giver but of the proportion of the gift as hers A mite to her was more then pounds to them Pounds were little to them two mites were all to her They gave out of their abundance she out of her necessity That which they gave left the heap lesse yet an heap still she gives all at once and leaves her self nothing So as she gave not more then any but more then they all God doth not so much regard what is taken out as what is left O Father of mercies thou lookest at once into the bottome of her heart and the bottome of her purse and esteemest her gift according to both As thou seest not as man so thou valuest not as man Man judgeth by the worth of the gift thou judgest by the minde of the giver and the proportion of the remainder It were wide with us if thou shouldst goe by quantities Alas what have we but mites and those of thine own lending It is the comfort of our meannesse that our affections are valued and not our presents neither hast thou said God loves a liberal giver but a chearfull If I had more O God thou shouldst have it had I lesse thou wouldst not despise it who acceptest the gift according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not Yea Lord what have I but two mites a Soul and a Body mere mites yea not so much to thine Infiniteness Oh that I could perfectly offer them up unto thee according to thine own right in them and not according to mine How graciously wouldst thou be sure to accept them how happy shall I be in thine acceptation The ambition of the two Sons of Zebedee HE who had his own time and ours in his hand foreknew and foretold the approach of his dissolution When men are near their end and ready to make their Will then is it seasonable to sue for Legacies Thus did the Mother of the two Zebedees therein well approving both her Wisedome and her Faith Wisedome in the fit choice of her opportunity Faith in taking such an opportunity The suit is half obtained that is seasonably made To have made this motion at the entry into their attendance had been absurd and had justly seemed to challenge a denial It was at the parting of the Angel that Jacob would be blessed The double spirit of Elijah is not sued for till his ascending But oh the admirable Faith of this good woman When she heard the discourse of Christs Sufferings and Death she talks of his Glory when she hears of his Crosse she speaks of his Crown If she had seen Herod come and tender his Scepter unto Christ or the Elders of the Jews come upon their knees with a submissive profer of their allegeance she might have had some reason to entertain the thoughts of a Kingdome but now whiles the sound of betraying suffering dying was in her eare to make account of and suit for a room in his Kingdome it argues a belief able to triumph over all discouragements It was nothing for the Disciples when they saw him after his conquest of death and rising from the grave to ask him Master wilt thou now restore the kingdome unto Israel but for a silly woman to look through his future Death and Passion at his Resurrection and Glory it is no lesse worthy of wonder then praise To hear a man in his best health and vigor to talk of his confidence in God and assurance of Divine favour cannot be much worth but if in extremities we can believe above hope against hope our Faith is so much more noble as our difficulties are greater Never sweeter persume arose from any altar then that which ascended from Job's dung-hill I know that my Redeemer liveth What a strange style is this that is given to this woman It had been as easie to have said the wife of Zebedee or the sister of Mary or of Joseph or as her name was plain Salome but now by an unusuall description she is styled The mother of Zebedee's children Zebedee was an obscure man she as his wife was no better the greatest honour she ever had or could have was to have two such sons as James and John these give a title to both their Parents Honour ascends as well as descends Holy Children dignifie the loyns and womb from whence they proceed no lesse then their Parents traduce honour unto them Salome might be a good wife a good huswife a good woman a good neighbour all these cannot ennoble her so much as the mother of Zebedee's children What a world of pain toyl care cost there is in the birth and education of children Their good proof requites all with advantage Next to happiness in our selves is to be happy in a gracious Issue The suit was the sons but by the mouth of their mother it was their best policy to speak by her lips Even these Fishermen had already learned craftily to fish for promotion Ambition was not so bold in them as to shew her own face the envy of the suit shall thus be avoided which could not but follow upon their personall request If it were granted they had what they would if not it was but the repulse of a womans motion which must needs be so much more pardonable because it was of a mother for her sons It is not discommendable in parents to seek the preferment of their children Why may not Abraham sue for an Ismael So it be by lawfull means in a moderate measure in due order this endeavour cannot be amisse It is the neglect of circumstances that makes these desires sinfull Oh the madnesse of those Parents that care not which way they raise an house that
and call us up out of our dust and we shall hear thy voice and live LAZARUS Raised GReat was the opinion that these devout Sisters had of the Power of Christ as if Death durst not shew her face to him they suppose his presence had prevented their Brothers dissolution And now the news of his approach begins to quicken some late hopes in them Martha was ever the more active She that was before so busily stirring in her house to entertain Jesus was now as nimble to goe forth of her house to meet him She in whose face joy had wont to smile upon so Blessed a Guest now salutes him with the sighs and teares and blubbers and wrings of a disconsolate mourner I know not whether the speeches of her greeting had in them more sorrow or Religion She had been well catechized before even she also had sat at Jesus his feet and can now give good account of her Faith in the Power and Godhead of Christ in the certainty of a future Resurrection This Conference hath yet taught her more and raised her heart to an expectation of some wonderful effect And now she stands not still but hastes back into the Village to her Sister carried thither by the two wings of her own hopes and her Saviours commands The time was when she would have called off her Sister from the feet of that Divine Master to attend the houshold occasions now she runs to fetch her out of the house to the feet of Christ Doubtless Martha was much affected with the presence of Christ and as she was overjoyed with it her self so she knew how equally welcome it would be to her Sister yet she doth not ring it out aloud in the open Hall but secretly whispers this pleasing tidings in her Sisters eare The Master is come and calleth for thee Whether out of modesty or discretion It is not fit for a woman to be loud and clamorous nothing beseems that Sex better then silence and bashfulness as not to be too much seen so not to be heard too farre Neither did Modesty more charm her tongue then Discretion whether in respect to the guests or to Christ himself Had those guests heard of Christs being there they had either out of fear or prejudice withdrawn themselves from him neither durst they have been witnesses of that wonderful Miracle as being over-awed with that Jewish edict which was out against him or perhaps they had withheld the Sisters from going to him against whom they knew how highly their Governors were incensed Neither was she ignorant of the danger of his own person so lately before assaulted violently by his enemies at Jerusalem She knew they were within the smoak of that bloody City the nest of his enemies she holds it not therefore fit to make open proclamation of Christs presence but rounds her Sister secretly in the eare Christianity doth not bid us abate any thing of our wariness and honest policies yea it requires us to have no less of the 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 eare 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 personall 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 Marie's speed or his own wise and gratious 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 faithful servant would not receive any curtesie from the house of Bethuel till he had done his Masters 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 kinde 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 exspect 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 fearful havock in families cities kingdomes worlds The complaint was grievous I look'd for some to comfort me but there was none It is some kinde of ease to sorrow to have partners as a burden is lightned by many shoulders or as clouds scattered into many drops easily vent their moisture into aire Yea the very presence of friends abates grief The peril that arises to the heart from Passion is the fixedness of it when like a corrosiving plaister it eates in into the sore Some kinde of remedy it is that it may breathe 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 stirre about with less observation or was it that Mary was the more passionate and needed the more heedy attendance 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 doores but they wait on her at all turns Perturbations of Minde are diseases good keepers do not only tend the Patient in bed but when he sits up when he tries to walk all his motions have their careful assistance 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
bring thee to our grave how should we lay open our deadness before thee and bewray to thee our impotence and senselesness Come Lord and see what a miserable carkass I am and by the power of thy mercy raise me from the state of my corruption Never was our Saviour more submisly dejected then now immediately before he would approve and exalt the Majesty of his Godhead To his groans and inward grief he adds his tears Anone they shall confess him a God these expressions of Passions shall onwards evince him to be a man The Jews construe this well See how he loved him Never did any thing but love fetch tears from Christ But they do foully misconstrue Christ in the other Could not he that opened the eyes of him that was born blinde have caused that even this man should not have died Yes know ye O vain and importune questionists that he could have done it with ease To open the eyes of a man born blind was more then to keep a sick man from dying this were but to uphold and maintain Nature from decaying that were to create a new sense and to restore a deficiency in Nature To make an eye was no whit less difficult then to make a man he that could doe the greater might well have done the less Ye shall soon see this was not for want of power Had ye said Why would he not why did he not the question had been fairer and the answer no less easie For his own greater glory Little do ye know the drift whether of God's acts or delaies and ye know as much as you are worthy Let it be sufficient for you to understand that he who can doe all things will doe that which shall be most for his own honour It is not improbable that Jesus who before groaned in himself for compassion of their tears now groaned for their incredulity Nothing could so much afflict the Saviour of men as the sins of men Could their external wrongs to his body have been separated from offence against his Divine person their scornful indignities had not so much affected him No injury goes so deep as our spiritual provocations of our God Wretched men why should we grieve the good Spirit of God in us why should we make him groan for us that died to redeem us With these groans O Saviour thou camest to the grave of Lazarus The door of that house of Death was strong and impenetrable Thy first word was Take away the stone Oh weak beginning of a mighty Miracle If thou meantest to raise the dead how much more easie had it been for thee to remove the grave-stone One grain of Faith in thy very Disciples was enough to remove mountains and dost thou say Take away the stone I wis there was a greater weight that lay upon the body of Lazarus then the stone of his Tomb the weight of Death and Corruption a thousand rocks and hils were not so heavy a load as this alone why then dost thou stick at this shovel-full Yea how easie 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 shows 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 exspected 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 faithful agents by the power of thy Law and the grace of thy Gospel take off the stone that thy voice may enter into the grave of miserable corruption Was it a modest kinde of mannerliness in Martha that she would not have Christ annoyed with the ill sent of that stale carcass or was it out of distrust of reparation since her brother had passed all the degrees of corruption that she saies Lord by this time he stinketh for he hath been dead four daies He that understood hearts found somewhat amiss in that intimation his answer had not endeavored to rectifie that which was utterly faultless I fear the good woman meant to object this as a likely obstacle to any further 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 unsavory 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 nostrils 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 finde 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
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 blood 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 perpetual 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 spiritual 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 over-joyed with the happy memory of this great work of thy Divine Power and unconceiveable 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 despight 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 Summe 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 defraied that quarrel 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 powerful 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 wonderful 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 whiles thou hast that perfect dominion over death death hath dominion over me if whiles 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 handfuls 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 marvel 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 attendance 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 equal but John is the yonger 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 behinde 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 whenas 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
Jesus Christ the Righteous to whom c. St. PAULS COMBAT IN TWO SERMONS Preached at the Court to his MAJESTIE in Ordinary Attendance By J. H. 1 Cor. 15. 32. If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OUR Saviour foretold us that these last days should be quarrelsome all the world doth either act or talk of fighting Give me leave therefore to fall upon the common Theme of the times and to tell you of an holy Combat Saint Peter tels us there are many knots in S. Paul's Epistles this may well go for one of them which is the relation of his Conflict at Ephesus There are that have held it literal and those not mean nor onely modern Authors Nicephorus tels us a sound tale of S. Paul's commitment to prison by Hieronymus the Governour of Ephesus his miraculous deliverance for the Christening of Eubula and Artemilla his voluntary return to his Gaole his casting to the Lion of the beast couching at the feet of the Saint of the hail-storm sending away the beholders with broken heads and the Governour with one ear shorn off of the Lions escape to the mountains It is a wonder in what mint he had it There was indeed a Theatre at Ephesus for such purposes and Christianos ad leonem was a common word as we find in Tertullian Ignatius Tecla Prisca and many other blessed Martyrs were corn allotted to this mill But what is this to S. Paul's Combat It is one thing to be cast to the beasts as an offender another thing to fight with beasts as a Champion a difference which I wonder the sharp eyes of Erasmus saw not Those were forced by the sentence of condemnation these Voluntaries as in the Jogo de toros those were brought to suffer these came to kill those naked these armed Can any man be so senseless as to think that S. Paul tricubitalis ille as Chrysostome cals him would put himself into the Theatre with his sword and target to maintain a duel with the Lion Thus he must doe else he did not according to the Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But if it be pleaded that some bloody sentence might cast him into the Theatre to be devoured and his will and natural care of self-preservation incited him to his own defence is it possible that so faithful an Historian as S. Luke should in his Acts omit this passage more memorable then all the rest that he hath recorded Indeed S. Paul who had reason to keep the best register of his own life hath reported some things of himself which S. Luke hath not particularized he tels us of five scourgings three whippings three shipwracks whereas S. Luke tels us but of one shipwrack Act. 27. of one scourging Act. 16. 23. But so eminent an occurrence as this could not have passed in silence at least amongst that catalogue of less dangers his own Pen would not have smothered it Yea let me be bold to say that this not onely was not done but could not be Paul was a Citizen of Rome if that priviledge saved him from lashes Act. 22. 25. much more from the beasts their contemptible jaws were no death for a Roman I am with those Fathers Tertullian Chrysostome Jerome Theophylact others who take this metaphorically of men in shape beasts in condition paralleling it with 2 Tim. 4. 17. I was delivered out of the mouth of the Lion that is Nero and with that of the Psalmist Ne tradas bestiis animas confitentes tibi Give not unto the beasts the souls that confess thee as the Vulgar reads Psal 74. 19. Who then were these beasts at Ephesus Many and great Authors take it of Demetrius his Faction and their busie tumult Acts 19. Neither will I strictly examine with S. Chrysostome whether S. Paul sent away this former Epistle from Ephesus before those broils of their Diana and her Silver-smiths as may seem to be gathered by conferring of S. Luke's journal with S. Paul's Epistle Others take it of those Ephesian Conjurers Acts 19. Tertullian hits it home whiles in a generality he construes it of those beasts of the Asiatick pressure whereof S. Paul speaks 2 Cor. 1. 8. That text glosses upon this at large turn your eyes to that Commentary of S. Paul For we would not have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia that we were pressed out of measare above strength insomuch as that we despaired of life But we had the sentence of death in our selves Lo here the Beasts lo here the Combat Ephesus was the mother-City of Asia there S. Paul spent three years with such perpetual and hot bickerings that his very life was hopeless As some great Conquerour therefore desires to have his prime and most famous victory ingraven in his last Monument so doth our Apostle single out this Ephesian I fought with beasts at Ephesus My Text then shall be this one word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But as this word is a compound so it compounds my Text and discourse of two parts the first comprehends the Beasts wherewith S. Paul conslicts the latter the conflicts that he had with those Beasts Both of them worthy of your most careful attention My first subjects is harsh and therefore will need a fair construction The world is a wide Wilderness wherein we converse with wild and savage creatures we think them men they are beasts It is contrary to the delusions of Lycanthropy there he that is a man thinks himself a beast here he that is a beast thinks himself a man and draws others eyes into the same errour Let no man misconstrue me as if in a Timon-like or Cynick humour I were fallen out with our creation I know what the Psalmist saies Thou hast made man little lower then the Angels Psal 8. 5. there is but paulò minùs I know some of whom it is said sicut Angeli as the Angels of God yea yet more there are those of whom it is said Dii estis ye are Gods besides these every renewed man is a Saint his Regeneration advances him above the sphere of mere Humanity but let him be but a very man that is a man corrupted I dare say though he be set in honour he is more then compared to the beast that perisheth Far be it from us then to cast mire into the face of our Creator God never made man such as he is it is our sin that made our Soul to grovel and if the mercy of our Maker have not condemned our hands to fore-legs how can that excuse us from bestiality Neither let us be thought to strike Grace through the sides of Nature when it pleaseth God to breath upon us again in our Renovation we cease to be what we made our selves then do we uncase the beast and put on an Angel It is with depraved man in his impure naturals that we must maintain this quarrel we cannot