this Jesus a power to apply his merits and obedience we are no whit the safer no whit the better only we are so much the wiser to understand who shall condemn us This piece of the clause was spoken like a Saint Jesus the Son of the most high God the other piece like a Devil What have I to doe with thee If the disclamation were universall the latter words would impugne the former for whiles he confesses Jesus to be the Son of the most high God he withall confesses his own inevitable subjection Wherefore would he beseech if he were not obnoxious He cannot he dare not say What hast thou to doe with me but What have I to doe with thee Others indeed I have vexed thee I fear In respect then of any violence of any personal provocation What have I to doe with thee And dost thou ask O thou evil spirit what hast thou to doe with Christ whiles thou vexest a servant of Christ Hast thou thy name from knowledge and yet so mistakest him whom thou confessest as if nothing could be done to him but what immediately concerns his own person Hear that great and just Judge sentencing upon his dreadfull Tribunal Inasmuch as thou didst it unto one of these little ones thou didst it unto me It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of the Members from the Head He that had humility enough to kneel to the Son of God hath boldnesse enough to expostulate Art thou come to torment us before our time Whether it were that Satan who useth to enjoy the torment of sinners whose musick it is to hear our shrieks and gnashings held it no small piece of his torment to be restrained in the exercise of his tyranny or whether the very presence of Christ were his rack for the guilty spirit projecteth terrible things and cannot behold the Judge or the executioner without a renovation of horrour or whether that as himself professeth he were now in a fearfull expectation of being commanded down into the deep for a further degree of actual torment which he thus deprecates There are tortures appointed to the very spiritual natures of evil Angels Men that are led by Sense have easily granted the body subject to torment who yet have not so readily conceived this incident to a spiritual substance The Holy Ghost hath not thought it fit to acquaint us with the particular manner of these invisible acts rather willing that we should herein fear then enquire But as all matters of Faith though they cannot be proved by Reason for that they are in a higher sphere yet afford an answer able to stop the mouth of all Reason that dares bark against them since truth cannot be opposite to it self so this of the sufferings of Spirits There is therefore both an intentional torment incident to Spirits and a reall For as in Blessedness the good Spirits finde themselves joyned unto the chief good and hereupon feel a perfect love of God and unspeakable joy in him and rest in themselves so contrarily the evil Spirits perceive themselves eternally excluded from the presence of God and see themselves setled in a wofull darkness and from the sense of this separation arises an horrour not to be expressed not to be conceived How many men have we known to torment themselves with their own thoughts There needs no other gibbet then that which their troubled spirit hath erected in their own heart And if some pains begin at the Body and from thence afflict the Soul in a copartnership of grief yet others arise immediately from the Soul and draw the Body into a participation of misery Why may we not therefore conceive mere and separate Spirits capable of such an inward excruciation Besides which I hear the Judge of men and Angels say Goe ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels I hear the Prophet say Tophet is prepared of old If with fear and without curiosity we may look upon those flames why may we not attribute a spiritual nature to that more then natural fire In the end of the world the Elements shall be dissolved by fire and if the pure quintessential matter of the skie and the element of fire it self shall be dissolved by fire then that last fire shall be of another nature then that which it consumeth What hinders then but that the Omnipotent God hath from eternity created a fire of another nature proportionable even to Spiritual essences Or why may we not distinguish of fire as it is it self a bodily creature and as it is an instrument of Gods justice so working not by any material virtue or power of its own but by a certain height of supernatural efficacy to which it is exalted by the Omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Judge Or lastly why may we not conceive that though Spirits have nothing material in their nature which that fire should work upon yet by the judgement of the Almighty Arbiter of the world justly willing their torment they may be made most sensible of pain and by the obedible submission of their created nature wrought upon immediately by their appointed tortures besides the very horrour which ariseth from the place whereto they are everlastingly confined For if the incorporeal Spirits of living men may be held in a lothed or painful body and conceive sorrow to be so imprisoned why may we not as easily yield that the evil spirits of Angels or men may be held in those direfull flames and much more abhor therein to continue for ever Tremble rather O my Soul at the thought of this wofull condition of the evil Angels who for one onely act of Apostasie from God are thus perpetually tormented whereas we sinfull wretches multiply many and presumptuous offences against the Majesty of our God And withall admire and magnifie that infinite Mercy to the miserable generation of man which after this holy severity of justice to the revolted Angels so graciously forbears our hainous iniquities and both suffers us to be free for the time from these hellish torments and gives us opportunity of a perfect freedome from them for ever Praise the Lord O my Soul and all that is within me praise his holy Name who forgiveth all thy sins and healeth all thine infirmities who redeemeth thy life from destruction and crowneth thee with mercy and compassions There is no time wherein the evil spirits are not tormented there is a time wherein they exspect to be tormented yet more Art thou come to torment us before our time They knew that the last Assises are the prefixed terme of their full execution which they also understood to be not yet come For though they knew not when the Day of Judgement should be a point concealed from the glorious Angels of Heaven yet they knew when it should not be and therefore they say Before the time Even the very evil spirits confesse and fearfully attend a set
with private and solitary Devotions but must joyn our spiritual forces together and set upon God by troups Two are better then one because they have a good reward for their labour No faithfull Prayer goes away unrecompensed but where many good hearts meet the retribution must be needs answerable to the number of the petitioners Oh holy and happy violence that is thus offered to Heaven How can we want Blessings when so many cords draw them down upon our heads It was not the sound but the matter that carried it with Christ if the sound were shrill the matter was faithfull Jesu Master have mercy upon us No word can better become the mouth of the miserable I see not where we can meet with fitter patterns Surely they were not verier Lepers then we why do we not imitate them in their actions who are too like them in our condition Whither should we seek but to our Jesus How should we stand aloof in regard of our own wretchedness how should we lift up our voice in the fervour of our supplications what should we rather sue for then mercy Jesu Master have mercy upon us Oh gracious prevention of mercy both had and given ere it can be asked Jesus when he saw them said Goe shew your selves to the Priests Their disease is cured ere it can be complained of their shewing to the Priest presupposes them whole whole in his grant though not in their own apprehension That single Leper that came to Christ before Mat. 8. Luke 5. was first cured in his own sense and then was bid to goe to the Priest for approbation of the Cure It was not so with these who are sent to the Judges of Leprosie with an intention they shall in the way finde themselves healed There was a different purpose in both these In the one that the perfection of the Cure might be convinced and seconded with a due sacrifice in the other that the Faith of the Patients might be tried in the way which if it had not held as strong in the prosecution of their suit as in the beginning had I doubt failed of the effect How easily might these Lepers think Alas to what purpose is this Shew our selves to the Priests What can their eyes doe They can judge whether it be cured which we see yet it is not they cannot cure it This is not now to doe We have been seen enough and loathed What can their eyes see more then our own We had well hoped that Jesus would have vouchsafed to call us to him and to lay his hands upon us and to have healed us These thoughts had kept them Lepers still Now shall their Faith and Obedience be proved by their submission both to this suddain command and that Divine ordination That former Leper was charged to shew himself to the chief Priest these to the Priests either would serve the original command runs either to Aaron or to one of his Sons But why to them Leprosie was a bodily sickness what is this to spiritual persons Wherefore serve Physicians if the Priests must meddle with diseases We never shall finde those Sacred persons to passe their judgment upon Fevers Dropsies Palsies or any other bodily distemper neither should they on this were it not that this affection of the body is joyned with a Legal uncleanness Not as a sickness but as an impurity must it come under their cognisance neither this without a further implication Who but the successors of the Legal Priesthood are proper to judge of the uncleannesses of the Soul Whether an act be sinfull or in what degree it is such what grounds are sufficient for the comfortable assurance of Repentance of forgivenesse what courses are fittest to avoid the danger of relapses who is so like to know so meet to judge as our Teachers Would we in these cases consult ofter with our spiritual Guides and depend upon their faithfull advises and well-grounded absolutions it were safer it were happier for us Oh the dangerous extremity of our wisdome Our hood-wink'd Progenitors would have no eyes but in the heads of their ghostly Fathers We think our selves so quick-sighted that we pity the blindness of our able Teachers none but our selves are fit to judge of our own Leprosie Neither was it onely the peculiar judgment of the Priest that was here intended but the thankfulness of the Patient that by the sacrifice which he should bring with him he might give God the glory of his sanation O God whomsoever thou curest of this spiritual Leprosie it is reason he should present thee with the true Evangelical sacrifices not of his praises onely but of himself which are reasonable and living We are still leprous if we do not first see our selves foul and then finde our selves thankfully serviceable The Lepers did not would not goe of themselves but are sent by Christ Goe and shew your selves And why sent by him Was it in obedience to the Law was it out of respect to the Priesthood was it for prevention of cavils was it for conviction of gainsayers or was it for confirmation of the Miracle Christ that was above the Law would not transgresse it he knew this was his charge by Moses How justly might he have dispensed with his own but he will not though the Law doth not binde the Maker he will voluntarily binde himself He was within the ken of his Consummatum est yet would not anticipate that approaching end but holds the Law on foot till his last pace This was but a branch of the Ceremonial yet would he not slight it but in his own person gives example of a studious observation How carefully should we submit our selves to the Royal laws of our Creator to the wholsome lawes of our Superiours whiles the Son of God would not but be so punctuall in a Ceremony Whiles I look to the Persons of those Priests I see nothing but corruption nothing but professed hostility to the true Messiah All this cannot make thee O Saviour to remit any point of the observance due to their Places Their Function was sacred whatever their Persons were though they have not the grace to give thee thy due thou wilt not faile to give them theirs How justly dost thou expect all due regard to thine Evangelicall Priesthood who gavest so curious respect to the Legall It were shame the Synagogue should be above the Church or that Priesthood which thou meantest speedily to abrogate should have more honour then that which thou meantest to establish and perpetuate Had this duty been neglected what clamours had been raised by his emulous adversaries What scandalls though the fault had been the Patients not the Physicians But they that watched Christ so narrowly and were apt to take so poor exceptions at his Sabbath-cures at the unwashen hands of his Disciples how much more would they have calumniated him if by his neglect the Law of Leprosie had been palpably transgressed Not only evil must be
he that put it into the heart of his Gracious Servant to command a Ninive-like Humiliation What pithie what passionate Prayers were injoined to his disconsolate Church With what holy eagernesse did we devour those Fasts How well were we pleased with the austerity of that pious Penitence What loud cries did beat on all sides at the gates of Heaven and with what inexspectable unconceivable mercy were they answered How suddenly were those many thousands brought down to one poor unity not a number Other evils were wont to come on horseback to goe away on foot this mortality did not post but flie away Methought like unto the great ice it sunk at once Only so many are stricken as may hold us awfull and so few as may leave us thankfull Oh how soon is our Fasting and mourning turned into Laughter and joy How boldly do we now throng into this House of God and fearlesly mix our breaths in a common Devotion This is the Lord 's doing and it is marvailous in our eyes O thou that hearest the prayer to thee shall all flesh come And let all flesh come to thee with the voice of Praise and Thanksgiving It might have been just with thee O God to have swept us away in the common destruction what are we better then our brethren Thou hast let us live that we may praise thee It might have been just with thee to have inlarged the commission of thy killing Angel and to have rooted out this sinfull people from under Heaven But in the midst of judgment thou hast remembred mercy Our sins have not made thee forget to be gracious nor have shut up thy loving kindnesse in displeasure Thou hast wounded us and thou hast healed us again thou hast delivered us and been mercifull to our sins for thy names sake Oh that we could duly praise thy Name in the great Congregation Oh that our tongues our hearts our lives might blesse and glorifie thee that so thou mayest take pleasure to perfect this great work of our full deliverance and to make this Nation a dear example of thy Mercy of Peace Victory Prosperity to all the world In the mean time let us call all our fellow-creatures to help us bear a part in the Praise of our God Let the Heavens the Stars the winds the waters the dews the frosts the nights the dayes let the Earth and Sea the mountains wells trees fishes fouls beasts let men let Saints let Angels blesse the Lord praise him and magnifie him for ever Blessed blessed for ever be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation to whom belong the issues from death Oh blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things and blessed be his glorious Name for ever and ever and let all the earth be filled with his glory Amen Amen One of the SERMONS Preached at Westminster on the day of the Publick Fast April 5. 1628. TO The Lords of the High Court of Parliament and by their appointment published by the B. of EXCESTER Esay 5. vers 4 5. What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done in it Wherefore when I looked that it should bring forth grapes brought it forth wilde grapes And now goe to I will tell you what I will doe to my Vineyard I will take away the hedge thereof IT is a piece of a Song for so it is called Vers 1. Alas what should Songs doe to an heavy heart Prov. 25. 20. or Musick in a day of Mourning Howling and lamentation is fitter for this occasion Surely as we do sometimes weep for joy so do we sing also for sorrow Thus also doth the Prophet here If it be a Song it is a Dump Esay's Lacrymae fit for that Sheminith gravis symphonia as Tremelius turns it which some sad Psalms were set unto Both the Ditty and the Tune are dolefull There are in it three passionate strains Favours Wrongs Revenge Blessings Sins Judgements Favours and Blessings from God to Israel Sins which are the highest Wrongs from Israel to God Judgments by way of Revenge from God to Israel And each of those follow upon other God begins with Favours to his people they answer him with their Sins he replies upon them with Judgments and all of these are in their height The Favours of God are such as he asks What could be more The Sins are aggravated by those Favours what worse then wilde Grapes and disappointment And the Judgments must be aggravated to the proportion of their Sins what worse then the Hedge taken away the Wall broken the Vineyard trodden down and eaten up Let us follow the steps of God and his Prophet in all these and when we have passed these in Israel let us seek to them at home What should I need to crave attention the businesse is both Gods and our own God and we begin with Favours Favours not mean and ordinary not expressed in a right-down affirmation but in an expostulatory and self-convincing Question What could have been done more to my Vineyard that I have not done to it Every word is a new obligation That Israel is a Vineyard is no small favour of God that it is God's Vineyard is yet more that it is God's Vineyard so exquisitely cultivated as nothing more could be either added or desired is most of all Israel is no vast Desart no wilde Forest no moorish Fen no barren Heath no thornie Thicket but a Vineyard a Soile of use and fruit Look where you will in God's Book ye shall never finde any lively member of Gods Church compared to any but a fruitfull tree Not to a tall Cypresse the Embleme of unprofitable Honour nor to a smooth Ash the Embleme of unprofitable Prelacie that doth nothing but bear Keyes nor to a double-coloured Poplar the Embleme of Dissimulation nor to a well-shaded Plane that hath nothing but Form nor to a hollow Maple nor to a trembling Aspe nor to a prickly Thorn shortly not to any Plant whatsoever whose fruit is not usefull and beneficial Hear this then ye goodly Cedars strong Elmes fast-growing Willows sappy Sycomores and all the rest of the fruitlesse trees of the earth I mean all fashionable and barren Professors whatsoever ye may shoot up in height ye may spread far shade well shew fair but what are ye good for Ye may be fit for the Forest Ditches Hedg-rows of the world ye are not for the true saving soil of God's Israel that is a Vineyard there is place for none but Vines and true Vines are fruitfull He that abideth in me bringeth forth much fruit saith our Saviour John 15. 5. And of all fruits what is comparable to that of the Vine Let the Vine it self speak in Jonathan's Parable Jud. 9. 13. Should I leave my Wine which cheareth God and man How is this God cheared with Wine It is an high Hyperbole yet seconded by the God of truth I will
thy words never till now at thy silence A miserable suppliant cries and sues whiles the God of mercies is speechlesse He that comforts the afflicted addes affliction to the comfortlesse by a willing disrespect What shall we say then Is the fountain of Mercy dried up O Saviour couldst thou but hear she did not murmur not whisper but cry out couldst thou but pity but regard her that was as good as she was miserable If thy ears were open could thy bowels be shut Certainly it was thou that didst put it into the heart into the mouth of this woman to ask and to ask thus of thy self She could never have said O Lord thou son of David but from thee but by thee None calleth Jesus the Lord but by the holy Ghost Much more therefore didst thou hear the words of thine own making and well wert thou pleased to hear what thou thoughtest good to forbear to answer It was thine own grace that sealed up thy lips Whether for the triall of her patience and perseverance forâ— silence carried a semblance of neglect and a willing neglect laies strong siege to the best fort of the Soul Even calm tempers when they have been stirred have bewrayed impetuousness of Passion If there be any dregs in the bottom of the glasse when the water is shaken they will be soon seen Or whether for the more sharpning of her desires and raising of her zealous importunity Our holy longings are increased with delaies it whets our appetite to be held fasting Or whether for the more sweetning of the blessing by the difficulty or stay of obtaining The benefit that comes with ease is easily contemned Long and eager pursuit endears any favour Or whether for the ingaging of his Disciples in so charitable a suit Or whether for the wise avoidance of exception from the captious Jews or lastly for the drawing on of an holy and imitable pattern of faithfull perseverance and to teach us not to measure God's hearing of our suit by his present answer or his present answer by our own sense Whiles our weakness exspects thy words thy wisdome resolves upon thy silence Never wert thou better pleased to hear the acclamation of Angels then to hear this woman say O Lord thou son of David yet silence is thy answer When we have made our prayers it is an happy thing to hear the report of them back from Heaven but if we alwaies do not so it is not for us to be dejected and to accuse either our infidelity or thy neglect since we finde here a faithfull suitor met with a gracious Saviour and yet he answered her not a word If we be poor in spirit God is rich in mercy he cannot send us away empty yet he will not alwaies let us feel his condescent crossing us in our will that he may advance our benefit It was no small fruit of Christ's silence that the Disciples were hereupon moved to pray for her not for a mere dismission it had been no favour to have required this but a punishment for if to be held in suspense be miserable to be sent away with a repulse is more but for a mercifull grant They saw much passion in the woman much cause of passion they saw great discouragement on Christ's part great constancy on hers Upon all these they feel her misery and become suitors for her unrequested It is our duty in case of necessity to intercede for each other and by how much more familiar we are with Christ so much more to improve our interest for the relief of the distressed We are bidden to say Our Father not mine yea being members of one body we pray for our selves in others If the foot be prickt the back bends the head bows down the eyes look the hands stir the tongue calls for aide the whole man is in pain and labours for redresse He cannot pray or be heard for himself that is no mans friend but his own No prayer without faith no faith without charity no charity without mutual intercession That which urged them to speak for her is urged to Christ by them for her obtaining She cries after us Prayer is as an arrow if it be drawn up but a little it goes not far but if it be pull'd up to the head it flies strongly and pierces deep If it be but dribbled forth of carelesse lips it falls down at our foot the strength of our ejaculation sends it up into Heaven and fetches down a blessing The childe hath escaped many a stripe by his loud crying and the very unjust Judge cannot indure the widows clamour Heartless motions do but teach us to deny servent suits offer violence both to earth and Heaven Christ would not answer the woman but doth answer the Disciples Those that have a familiarity with God shall receive answers when strangers shall stand out Yea even of domesticks some are more intire He that lay in Jesus his bosome could receive that intelligence which was concealed from the rest But who can tell whether that silence or this answer be more grievous I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel What is this answer but a defence of that silence and seeming neglect Whiles he said nothing his forbearance might have been supposed to proceed from the necessity of some greater thoughts but now his answer professeth that silence to have proceeded from a willing resolution not to answer and therefore he doth not vouchsafe so much as to give to her the answer but to her solicitors that they might return his deniall from him to her who had undertaken to derive her suit to him I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel Like a faithfull Embassadour Christ hath an eye to his commission That may not be violated though to an apparant advantage whither he is not sent he may not goe As he so all his have their fixed marks set at these they aime and think it not safe to shoot at rovers In matter of morality it is not for us to stand onely upon inhibitions avoiding what is forbidden but upon commands endeavouring only what is injoyned We need no other rule of our life then the intention of our several stations And if he that was God would take no further scope to himself then the limits of his commission how much doth it concern us frail men to keep within compass or what shall become of our lawlesness that live in a direct contrariety to the will of him that sent us Israel was Jacob's name from him derived to his posterity till the division of the Tribes under Jeroboam all that nation was Israel then the Father's name went to the most which were ten Tribes the name of the Son Juda to the best which were two Christ takes no notice of this unhappy division he remembers the antient name which he gave to that faithfull wrestler It was this Christ with whom Jacob strove it was he
thou art now in Heaven the smalness of our person or of our condition cannot lett us from beholding thee The Soul hath no stature neither is Heaven to be had with reaching onely clear thou the eyes of my Faith and I am high enough I regard not the Body the Soul is the man It is to small purpose that the body is a Giant if the Soul be a dwarf We have to doe with a God that measures us by our desires not by our statures All the streets of Jericho however he seemed to the eye had not so tall a man as Zacheus The witty Publican easily finds both his hindrances and the waies of their redress His remedy for the prease is to run before the multitude his remedy for his stature is to climb up into the Sycomore he imployes his feet in the one his hands and feet in the other In vain shall he hope to see Christ that doth not out-go the common throng of the world The multitude is clustred together and moves too close to move fast we must be nimbler then they if ever we desire or exspect to see Christ It is the charge of God Thou shalt not follow a multitude to doe evil we doe evil if we lagge in good It is held commonly both wit and state for a man to keep his pace and that man escapes not censure who would be forwarder then his fellows Indeed for a man to run alone in wayes of indifferency or to set an hypocritical face of out-running all others in a zealous profession when the heart lingers behinde both these are justly hateful but in an holy emulation to strive truly and really to out strip others in degrees of Grace and a conscionable care of obedience this is truly Christian and worthy of him that would hope to be blessed with the sight of a Saviour Tell me ye fashionable Christians that stand upon terms of equality and will not go a foot before your neighbours in holy zeal and aidful charity in conscionable sincerity tell me who hath made other mens progress a measure for yours Which of you saies I will be no richer no greater no fairer no wiser no happier then my fellows Why should you then say I will be no holier Our life is but a race every good End that a man proposes to himself is a several goal Did ever any man that ran for a prize say I will keep up with the rest Doth he not know that if he be not foremost he loseth We had as good to have sate still as not so to run that we may obtain We obtain not if we out-run not the multitude So farre did Zacheus over-run the stream of the people that he might have space to climb the Sycomore ere Jesus could pass by I examine not the kinde the nature the quality of this Plant what Tree soever it had been Zacheus would have tried to scale it for the advantage of this prospect He hath found out this help for his stature and takes pains to use it It is the best improvement of our wit to seek out the aptest furtherances for our Souls Do you see a weak and studious Christian that being unable to inform himself in the matters of God goes to the cabinet of Heaven the Priests lips which shall preserve knowledge there is Zacheus in the Sycomore It is the truest wisdome that helps forward our Salvation How witty we are to supply all the deficiencies of Nature If we be low we can adde cubits to our stature if ill-coloured we can borrow complexion if hairless perukes if dim-sighted glasses if lame crutches and shall we be conscious of our spiritual wants and be wilfully regardless of the remedy Surely had Zacheus stood still on the ground he had never seen Christ had he not climbed the Sycomore he had never climbed into Heaven O Saviour I have not height enough of my own to see thee give me what Sycomore thou wilt give me grace to use it give me an happy use of that grace The more I look at the mercy of Christ the more cause I see of astonishment Zacheus climbs up into the Sycomore to see Jesus Jesus first sees him preventing his eyes with a former view Little did Zacheus look that Jesus would have cast up his eyes to him Well might he think the boys in the street would spy him out and shout at his stature trade ambition but that Jesus should throw up his eyes into the Sycomore and take notice of that small despised morsel of flesh ere Zacheus could finde space to distinguish his face from the rest was utterly beyond his thought or exspectation All his hope is to see and now he is seen To be seen and acknowledged is much more then to see Upon any solemn occasion many thousands see the Prince whom he sees not and if he please to single out any one whether by his eye or by his tongue amongst the prease it passes for an high favour Zacheus would have thought it too much boldness to have asked what was given him As Jonathan did to David so doth God to us he shoots beyond us Did he not prevent us with mercy we might climb into the Sycomore in vain If he give Grace to him that doth his best it is the praise of the giver not the earning of the receiver How can we doe or will without him If he see us first we live and if we desire to see him we shall be seen of him Whoever took pains to climb the Sycomore and came down disappointed O Lord what was there in Zacheus that thou shouldst look up at him a Publican a sinner an arch-extortioner a dwarf in stature but a Giant in oppression a little man but a great Sycophant if rich in coin more rich in sins and treasures of wrath Yet it is enough that he desires to see thee all these disadvantages cannot hide him from thee Be we never so sinful if our desires towards thee be hearty and servent all the broad leaves of the Sycomore cannot keep off thine eye from us If we look at thee with the eye of Faith thou wilt look at us with the eye of mercy The eye of the Lord is upon the just and he is just that would be so if not in himself yet in thee O Saviour when Zacheus was above and thou wert below thou didst look up at him now thou art above and we below thou lookest down upon us thy mercy turns thine eyes every way towards our necessities Look down upon us that are not worthy to look up unto thee and finde us out that we may seek thee It was much to note Zacheus it was more to name him Methinks I see how Zacheus startled at this to hear the sound of his own name from the mouth of Christ neither can he but think Doth Jesus know me Is it his voice or some others in the throng Lo this is the first blink that ever I had of him
contenting thy self in this that thou hast a Master to whom the land and water is alike Yet I hear not a check but a Call Come The suit of Ambition is suddainly quashed in the Mother of the Zebedees The suits of Revenge prove no better in the mouth of the two fiery Disciples But a suit of Faith though high and seemingly unfit for us he hath no power to deny How much lesse O Saviour wilt thou stick at those things which lie in the very road of our Christianity Never man said Bid me to come to thee in the way of thy commandements whom thou didst not both bid and inable to come True Faith rests not in great and good desires but acts and executes accordingly Peter doth not wish to goe and yet stand stillâ— but his foot answers his tongue and instantly chops down upon the waters To sit still and wish is for sluggish and cowardly spirits Formal volitions yea velleities of good whiles we will not so mucâ—â—â— step out of the ship of our Nature to walk unto Christ are but the faint motions of vain Hypocrisie It will be long enough ere the gale of good wishes can carry us to our Haven Ease slayeth the foolish O Saviour we have thy command to come to thee out of the ship of our natural corruption Let no Sea affray us let no tempest of Temptation withhold us No way can be but safe when thou art the End Lo Peter is walking upon the waves two hands uphold him the hand of Christ's Power the hand of his own Faith neither of them would doe it alone The hand of Christ's Power laid hold on him the hand of his Faith laid hold on the Power of Christ commanding Had not Christ's hand been powerfull that Faith had been in vain Had not that Faith of his strongly fixed upon Christ that Power had not been effectual to his preservation Whiles we are here in the world we walk upon the waters still the same hands bear us up If he let goe his hold of us we drown if we let goe our hold of him we sink and shreek as Peter did here who when he saw the winde boistrous was afraid and beginning to sink cried saying Lord save me When he wisht to be bidden to walk unto Christ he thought of the waters Bid me to come to thee on the waters he thought not of the windes which raged on those waters or if he thought of a stiffe gale yet that tempestuous and sudden gust was out of his account and exspectation Those evils that we are prepared for have not such power over us as those that surprise us A good water-man sees a dangerous billow coming towards him and cuts it and mounts over it with ease the unheedy is overwhelmed O Saviour let my haste to thee be zealous but not improvident ere I set my foot out of the ship let me foresee the Tempest when I have cast the worst I cannot either miscarry or complain So soon as he began to fear he began to sink whiles he believed the Sea was brass when once he began to distrust those waves were water He cannot sink whiles he trusts the power of his Master he cannot but sink when he misdoubts it Our Faith gives us as courage and boldness so success too our infidelity laies us open to all dangers to all mischiefs It was Peter's improvidence not to foresee it was his weakness to fear it was the effect of his fear to sink it was his Faith that recollects it self and breaks through his infidelity and in sinking could say Lord save me His foot could not be so swift in sinking as his heart in imploring he knew who could uphold him from sinking and being sunk deliver him and therefore he saies Lord save me It is a notable both sign and effect of true Faith in suddain extremities to ejaculate holy desires and with the wings of our first thoughts to flie up instantly to the throne of Grace for present succour Upon deliberation it is possible for a man that hath been carelesse and profane by good means to be drawn to holy dispositions but on the suddain a man will appear as he is whatever is most rife in the heart will come forth at the mouth It is good to observe how our surprisals finde us the rest is but forced this is natural Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh O Saviour no evil can be swifter then my thought my thought shall be upon thee ere I can be seized upon by the speediest mischief at least if I over-run not evils I shall overtake them It was Christ his Lord whom Peter had offended in distrusting it is Christ his Lord to whom he sues for deliverance His weakness doth not discourage him from his refuge O God when we have displeased thee when we have sunk in thy displeasure whither should we flie for aide but to thee whom we have provoked Against thee only is our sin in thee only is our help In vain shall all the powers of Heaven and earth conspire to relieve us if thou withhold from our succour As we offend thy Justice daily by our sins so let us continually relie upon thy Mercy by the strength of our Faith Lord save us The mercy of Christ is at once sought and found Immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him He doth not say Hadst thou trusted me I would have safely preserved thee but since thou wilt needs wrong my power and care with a cowardly diffidence sink and drown but rather as pitying the infirmity of his fearful Disciple he puts out the hand for his relief That hand hath been stretch'd forth for the aide of many a one that hath never ask'd it never any ask'd it to whose succour it hath not been stretched With what speed with what confidence should we flie to that soveraign bounty from which never any suitor was sent away empty Jesus gave Peter his hand but withall he gave him a check O thou of little faith why doubtedst thou As Peter's Faith was not pure but mixed with some distrust so our Saviours help was not clear and absolute but mixed with some reproof A reproof wherein there was both a censure and an expostulation a censure of his Faith an expostulation for his Doubt both of them sore heavy By how much more excellent and usefull a grace Faith is by so much more shamefull is the defect of it and by how much more reason here was of confidence by so much more blame-worthy was the Doubt Now Peter had a double reason of his confidence the command of Christ the power of Christ the one in bidding him to come the other in sustaining him whiles he came To misdoubt him whose will he knew whose power he felt was well worth a reprehension When I saw Peter stepping forth upon the waters I could not but wonder at his great Faith yet behold ere he can have measured many paces
begin a worse this Heavenly flame should but kindle that of Hell Thus unconceivably heavy was the revenge but what was the offence We have learned not to think any indignity light that is offered to the Son of God but we know these spiritual affronts are capable of degrees Had these Samaritans reviled Christ and his train had they violently assaulted him had they followed him with stones in their hands and blasphemies in their mouths it had been a just provocation of so horrible a vengeance Now the wrong was onâ—ly negative they received him not And that not out of any particular quarrell or dislike of his Person but of his Nation onely the men had been welcome had not their Country distasted All the charge that I hear our Saviour give to his Disciples in case of their rejection is If they receive you not shake off the dust of your feet Yet this was amongst their own and when they went on that sacred errand of publishing the Gospel of Peace These were strangers from the commonwealth of Israel This measure was not to Preachers but to Travellers only a mere inhospitality to misliked guests Yet no lesse revenge will serve them then fire from Heaven I dare say for you ye holy sons of Zebedee it was not your spleen but your zeal that was guilty of so bloody a suggestion your indignation could not but be stirred to see the great Prophet and Saviour of the world so unkindly repelled yet all this will not excuse you from a rash Cruelty from an inordinate Rage Even the best heart may easily be miscarried with a well-meant Zeal No affection is either more necessary or better accepted Love to any Object cannot be severed from hatred of the contrary whence it is that all creatures which have the concupiscible part have also the irascible adjoined unto it Anger and displeasure is not so much an enemy as a guardian and champion of Love Whoever therefore is rightly affected to his Saviour cannot but finde much regret at his wrongs O gracious and divine Zeal the kindely warmth and vitall temper of Piety whither hast thou withdrawn thy self from the cold hearts of men Or is this according to the just constitution of the old and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisdome 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 Murder They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholesome and blessed is that zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by wisdome and charity Wisdome to avoid rashnesse and excesse 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 priviledged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instict or speciall 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 finde fault with the errous of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with Gods own hand I finde him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitors and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitablenesse 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 minde 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 blood Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwinde 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 Gods Saints in singular actions must see they goe 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
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
victory Else it matters not what they were what I was O God thou whose title is I am regardest the present He befriends and honours us that saies Such ye were but ye are washed The place addes to the hainousness of the sin In the City The more publick the fact is the greater is the scandall Sin is sin though in a desart Others eyes do not make the act more vile in it self but the offence is multiplied by the number of beholders I hear no Name of either the City or the Woman she was too well known in her time How much better is it to be obscure then infamous Herein I doubt not God meant to spare the reputation of a penitent Convert He who hates not the person but the sin cares only to mention the sin not the person It is justice to prosecute the Vice it is mercy to spare the Offender How injurious a presumption is it for any man to name her whom God would have concealed and to cast this aspersion on those whom God hath noted for holiness The worst of this woman is past She was a sinner the best is to come She sought out Jesus where In the house of a Pharisee It was the most inconvenient place in the world for a noted sinner to seek Christ in No men stood so much upon the terms of their own Righteousness no men so scornfully disdained an infamous person The touch of an ordinary though honest Jew was their pollution how much more the presence of a Strumpet What a sight was a known sinner to him to whom his holiest neighbour was a sinner How doth he though a better Pharisee look awrie to see such a piece in his house whiles he dares think If this man were a Prophet he would surely know what manner of woman this is Neither could she fore-imagine lesse when she ventured to presse over the threshold of a Pharisee Yet not the known austerity of the man and her mis-welcome to the place could affright her from seeking her Saviour even there No disadvantage can defer the Penitent Soul from a speedy recourse to Christ She saies not If Jesus were in the street or in the field or in the house of some humble Publican or any where save with a Pharisee I would come to him now I will rather defer my accesse then seek him where I shall finde scorn and censure but as not fearing the frowns of that overlie Host she thrusts her self into Simon 's house to finde Jesus It is not for the distressed to be bashfull it is not for a believer to be timorous O Saviour if thy Spouse misse thee she will seek thee through the streets the blows of the watch shall not daunt her If thou be on the other side of the water a Peter will leap into the Sea and swim to thee if on the other side of the fire thy blessed Martyrs will run through those flames to thee We are not worthy of the comfort of thy presence if wheresoever we know thou art whether in prison or in exile or at the stake we do not hasten thither to injoy thee The Place was not more unfit then the Time a Pharisees house was not more unproper for a sinner then a Feast was for humiliation Tears at a Banquet are as Jigs at a Funeral There is a season for all things Musick had been more apt for a Feast then mourning The heart that hath once felt the sting of sin and the sweetness of remission hath no power to delay the expressions of what it feels and cannot be confined to terms of circumstance Whence then was this zeal of her accesse Doubtlesse she had heard from the mouth of Christ in those heavenly Sermons of his many gracious invitations of all troubled and labouring souls she had observed how he vouchsafed to come under the roofs of despised Publicans of professed enemies she had noted all the passages of his power and mercy and now deep remorse wrought upon her heart for her former viciousness The pool of her Conscience was troubled by the descending Angel and now she steps in for a cure The arrow stuck fast in her Soul which she could not shake out and now she comes to this soveraign Dittanie to expell it Had not the Spirit of God wrought upon her ere she came and wrought her to come she had never either sought or found Christ Now she comes in and findes that Saviour whom she sought she comes in but not empty-handed though debauched she was a Jewesse She could not but have heard that she ought not to appear before the Lord empty What then brings she It was not possible she could bring to Christ a better present then her own Penitent Soul yet to testifie that she brings another delicate both for the vessel and the contents A box of Alabaster a solid hard pure clear marble fit for the receit of so precious an ointment the ointment pleasant and costly a composition of many fragrant Odors not for medicine but delight The Soul that is truly touched with the sense of its own sin can think nothing too good too dear for Christ The remorsed sinner begins first with the tender of burnt-offerings and calves of a year old thence he ascends to Hecatombs thousands of rams and above that yet to ten thousand rivers of oyle and yet higher could be content to give the first-fruit of his body to expiate the sin of his Soul Any thing every thing is too small a price for peace O Saviour since we have tasted how sweet thou art lo we bring thee the daintiest and costliest perfumes of our humble Obediences yea if so much of our blood as this woman brought ointment may be usefull or pleasing to thy Name we do most chearfully consecrate it unto thee If we would not have thee think Heaven too good for us why should we stick at any earthly retribution to thee in lieu of thy great mercies Yet here I see more then the price This odoriferous persume was that wherewith she had wont to make her self pleasing to her wanton Lovers and now she comes purposely to offer it up to her Saviour As her love was turned another way from sensual to Divine so shall her Ointment also be altered in the use that which was abused to Luxury shall now be consecrated to Devotion There is no other effect in whatsoever true Conversion As we have given our members servants to iniquity to commit iniquity so shall we now give our members servants unto righteousnesse in holinesse If the dames of Israel that thought nothing more worth looking on then their own faces have spent too much time in their glasses now they shall cast in those metalls to make a Laver for the washing off their uncleannesses If I have spent the prime of my strength the strength of my wit upon my self and vanity I have bestowed my Alabaster-box amisse Oh now teach me my God and Saviour to
hath denied the faith and is worse then an Infidel We may we must care for many things so that our care be for good and well For good both in kinde and measure well so as our care be free from distraction from distrust From distraction that it hinder us not from the necessary duties of our general Calling from distrust that we misdoubt not Gods providence whiles we imploy our own We cannot care for thee unlesse we thus care for our selves for ours Alas how much care do I see every where but how few Martha's Her care was for her Saviours entertainment ours for our selves One findes perplexities in his Estate which he desires to extricate another beats his brains for the raising of his House One busies his thoughts about the doubtfull condition as he thinks of the Times and casts in his anxious head the imaginary events of all things opposing his hopes to his fears another studies how to avoid the cross blows of an Adversary Martha Martha thou art carefull and troubled about many things Foolish men why do we set our hearts upon the rack and need not why will we indure to bend under that burden which more able shoulders have offered to undertake for our ease Thou hast bidden us O God to cast our cares upon thee with promise to care for us We do gladly unload our selves upon thee O let our care be to depend on thee as thine is to provide for us Whether Martha be pitied or taxed for her sedulity I am sure Mary is praised for her devotion One thing is necessary Not by way of negation as if nothing were necessary but this but by way of comparison as that nothing is so necessary as this Earthly occasions must vaile to spiritual Of those three main grounds of all our actions Necessity Convenience Pleasure each transcends other Convenience carries it away from Pleasure Necessity from Convenience and one degree of Necessity from another The degrees are according to the conditions of the things necessary The condition of these earthly necessaries is that without them we cannot live temporally the condition of the spiritual that without them we cannot live eternally So much difference then as there is betwixt temporary and eternal so much there must needs be betwixt the necessity of these bodily actions and those spiritual Both are necessary in their kindes neither must here be an opposition but a subordination The body and Soul must be friends not rivals we may not so ply the Christian that we neglect the man Oh the vanity of those men who neglecting that one thing necessary affect many things superfluous Nothing is needlesse with worldly mindes but this one which is onely necessary the care of their Souls How justly do they lose that they cared not for whiles they over-care for that which is neither worthy nor possible to be kept Neither is Marie's businesse more allowed then her self She hath chosen the good part It was not forced upon her but taken up by her election Martha might have sate still as well as she She might have stir'd about as well as Marie's will made this choice not without the inclination of him who both gave this will and commends it That will was before renewed no marvell if it chose the good though this were not in a case of good and evil but of good and better We have still this holy freedome through the inoperation of him that hath freed us Happy are we if we can improve this liberty to the best advantage of our Souls The stability or perpetuity of good addes much to the praise of it Martha's part was soon gone the thank and use of a little outward Hospitality cannot long last but Mary's shall not be taken away from her The act of her hearing was transient the fruit permanent she now hears that which shall stick by her for ever What couldst thou hear O Holy Mary from those Sacred lips which we hear not still That Heavenly Doctrine is never but the same not more subject to change then the Author of it It is not impossible that the exercise of the Gospel should be taken from us but the benefit and virtue of it is as inseparable from our Souls as their Being In the hardest times that shall stick closest to us and till death in death after death shall make us happy The Begger that was born blinde cured THE man was born blinde This Cure requires not Art but Power a power no lesse then infinite and Divine Nature presupposeth a matter though formlesse Art looks for matter formed to our hands God stands not upon either Where there was not an Eye to be healed what could an Oculist doe It is only a God that can create Such are we O God to all spiritual things we want not sight but eyes it must be thou only that canst make us capable of illumination The blinde man sate begging Those that have eyes and hands and feet of their own may be able to help themselves those that want these helps must be beholden to the eyes hands feet of others The impotent are cast upon our mercy Happy are we if we can lend lims and senses to the needy Affected beggery is odious that which is of God's making justly challengeth relief Where should this blinde man sit begging but near the Temple At one gate sits a cripple a blinde man at another Well might these miserable souls suppose that Piety and Charity dwelt close together the two Tables were both of one quarry Then are we best disposed to mercy towards our brethren when we have either craved or acknowledged God's mercy towards our selves If we goe thither to beg of God how can we deny mites when we hope for talents Never did Jesus move one foot but to purpose He passed by but so as that his Virtue stayed so did he passe by that his eye was fixed The blinde man could not see him he sees the blinde man His goodness prevents us and yields better supplies to our wants He saw compassionately not shutting his eyes not turning them aside but bending them upon that dark and disconsolate Object That which was said of the Sun is much more true of him that made it Nothing is hid from his light but of all other things Miseries especially of his own are most intentively eyed of him Could we be miserable unseen we had reason to be heartlesse O Saviour why should we not imitate thee in this mercifull improvement of our Senses Wo be to those eyes that care onely to gaze upon their own beauty bravery wealth not abiding to glance upon the sores of Lazarus the sorrows of Joseph the dungeon of Jeremy the blinde Begger at the gate of the Temple The Disciples see the blinde man too but with different eyes our Saviour for pity and cure they for expostulation Master who did sin this man or his Parents that he is born blinde I like well that whatsoever doubt troubled them
how apt passionate mindes 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 Lazarus was wont to lye and then she wept afresh when the Table There Lazarus was wont to sit and then new teares 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 beatifical presence Their indulgent love mistook Marie's errand their thoughts how kind soever were much too low whiles 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 truely intended setting such constructions upon them as their own carnal reason suggests they think them dying when behold they live sorrowful when they are alwaies rejoycing poor whiles they make many rich How justly do we appeal from them as incompetent Judges and pity those misinterpretations 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 awful veneration whether out of a reverend 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 awful acknowledgement 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 saies as much as her Sister had spoken before Thou art the Christ the Son of God Those that would give Christ his right must not stand upon scrupulous fears Are we naturally timorous Why do we not fear the denial the exclusion of the Almighty Without shall be the fearfull Her humble prostration is seconded by a lamentable complaint Lord if thou hadst been here my brother had not died The Sisters are both in one mind both in one speech and both of them in one speech bewray both strength and infirmity strength of Faith in ascribing so much power to Christ that his presence could preserve from death infirmity in supposing the necessity of a presence for this purpose Why Mary could not thine Omnipotent Saviour as well in absence have commanded Lazarus to live Is his hand so short that he can doe nothing but by contaction If his Power were finite how could he have forbidden the seizure of death if infinite how could it be limited to place or hindered by distance It is a weakness of Faith to measure success by means and means by presence and to tye effects to both when we deal with an Almighty agent Finite causes work within their own sphere all places are equally near and all effects equally easie to the infinite O Saviour whiles thou now sittest gloriously in Heaven thou dost no less impart thy self unto us then if thou stoodst visibly by us then if we stood locally by thee no place can make difference of thy virtue and aid This was Mary's moan no motion no request sounded from her to her Saviour Her silent suit is returned with a mute answer no notice is taken of her error Oh that marvellous mercy that connives at our faulty infirmities All the reply that I hear of is a compassionate groan within himself O blessed Jesu thou that wert free from all sin wouldst not be free from strong affections Wisdome and Holiness should want much work if even vehement passions might not be quitted from offence Mary wept her tears drew on tears from her friends all their tears united drew groans from thee Even in thine Heaven thou dost no less pity our sorrows thy glory is free from groans but abounds with compassion and mercy if we be not sparing of our tears thou canst not be insensible of our sorrows How shall we imitate thee if like our looking-glass we do not answer tears and weep on them that weep upon us Lord thou knewest in absence that Lazarus was dead and dost thou not know where he was buried Surely thou wert further off when thou sawst and reportedst his death then thou wert from the grave thou inquiredst of thou that knewest all things yet askest what thou knowest Where have ye laid him Not out of need but out of will that as in thy sorrow so in thy question thou mightest depress thy self in the opinion of the beholders for the time that the glory of thine instant Miracle might be the greater the less it was exspected It had been all one to thy Omnipotence to have made a new Lazarus out of nothing or in that remoteness to have commanded Lazarus wheresoever he was to come forth but thou wert neither willing to work more miracle then was requisite nor yet unwilling to fix the minds of the people upon the exspectation of some marvellous thing that thou meantest to work and therefore askest Where have you laid him They are not more glad of the question then ready for the answer Come and see It was the manner of the Jews as likewise of those Egyptians among whom they had sojourned to lay up the dead bodies of their friends with great respect more cost was wont to be bestowed on some of their graves then on their houses as neither ashamed then nor unwilling to shew the decency of their sepulture they say Come and see More was hoped for from Christ then a mere view they meant and exspected that his eye should draw him on to some further action O Saviour whiles we desire our spiritual resuscitation how should we labour to
say I am he that easie breath alone routed all your troups and cast them to the earth whom it might as easily have cast down into Hell What if he had said I will not be taken where had ye been or what could your swords and staves have done against Omnipotence Those Disciples that failed of their vigilance failed not of their courage they had heard their Master speak of providing swords and now they thought it was time to use them Shall we smite They were willing to fight for him with whom they were not carefull to watch but of all other Peter was most forward in stead of opening his lips he unsheaths his sword and in stead of Shall I smites He had noted Malchus a busie servant of the High priest too ready to second Judas and to lay his rude hands upon the Lord of Life against this man his heart rises and his hand is lift up That eare which had too-officiously listened to the unjust and cruell charge of his wicked Master is now severed from that worse head which it had mis-served I love and honour thy zeal O blessed Disciple Thou couldst not brook wrong done to thy Divine Master Had thy life been dearer to thee then his safety thou hadst not drawn thy sword upon a whole troup It was in earnest that thou saidst Though all men yet not I and Though I should die with thee yet I will not deny thee Lo thou art ready to die upon him that should touch that Sacred person what would thy life now have been in comparison of renouncing him Since thou wert so fervent why didst thou not rather fall upon that treachour that betrai'd him then that Sergeant that arrested him Surely the sin was so much greater as the plot of mischief is more then the execution as a Domestick is nearer then a Stranger as the treason of a Friend is worse then the forced enmity of an Hireling Was it that the guilty wretch upon the fact done subduced himself and shrouded his false head under the wings of darknesse Was it that thou couldst not so suddenly apprehend the odious depth of that Villany and instantly hate him that had been thy old companion Was it that thy amazednesse as yet conceived not the purposed issue of this seizure and astonishedly waited for the successe Was it that though Judas were more faulty yet Malchus was more imperiously cruell Howsoever thy Courage was awaked with thy self and thy heart was no lesse sincere then thine hand was rash Put up again thy sword into his place for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword Good intentions are no warrant for our actions O Saviour thou canst at once accept of our meanings and censure our deeds Could there be an affection more worth incouragement then the love to such a Master Could there be a more just cause wherein to draw his sword then in thy quarrell Yet this love this quarrell cannot shield Peter from thy check thy meek tongue smites him gently who had furiously smote thine enemy Put up thy sword It was Peter's sword but to put up not to use there is a sword which Peter may use but it is of another metall Our weapons are as our warfare spiritual if he smite not with this he incurs no lesse blame then for smiting with the other as for this material sword what should he doe with it that is not allowed to strike When the Prince of Peace bade his Followers sell their coat and buy a sword he meant to insinuate the need of these arms not their improvement and to teach them the danger of the time not the manner of the repulse of danger When they therefore said Behold here are two swords he answered It is enough he said not Go buy more More had not been enow if a bodily defence had been intended David's tower had been too streight to yield sufficient furniture of this kinde When it comes to use Peter's one sword is too much Put up thy sword Indeed there is a temporal sword and that sword must be drawn else wherefore is it but drawn by him that bears it and he bears it that is ordained to be an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil for he bears not the sword in vain If another man draw it it cuts his fingers and draws so much blood of him that unwarrantably wields it as that he who takes the sword shall perish with the sword Can I chuse but wonder how Peter could thus strike unwounded how he whose first blow made the fray could escape hewing in pieces from that band of Ruffians This could not have been if thy power O Saviour had not restrained their rage if thy seasonable and sharp reproof had not prevented their revenge Now for ought I see Peter smarts no lesse then Malchus neither is Peter's eare lesse smitten by the milde tongue of his Master then Malchus his eare by the hand of Peter Weak Disciple thou hast zeal but not according to knowledge there is not more danger in this act of thine then inconsideration and ignorance The cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Thou drawest thy sword to rescue me from suffering Alas if I suffer not what would become of thee what would become of mankinde where were that eternal and just Decree of my Father wherein I am a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world Dost thou go about to hinder thine own and the whole worlds Redemption Did I not once before call thee Satan for suggesting to me this immunity from my Passion and dost thou now think to favour me with a reall opposition to this great and necessary work Canst thou be so weak as to imagine that this Suffering of mine is not free and voluntary Canst thou be so injurious to me as to think I yield because I want aid to resist Have I not given to thee and to the world many undeniable proofs of my Omnipotence Didst thou not see how easie it had been for me to have blown away these poor forces of my adversaries Dost thou not know that if I would require it all the glorious troups of the Angels of Heaven any one whereof is more then worlds of men would presently shew themselves ready to attend and rescue me Might this have stood with the Justice of my Decree with the Glory of my Mercy with the Benefit of mans Redemption it had been done my Power should have triumphed over the impotent malice of my enemies but now since that eternal Decree must be accomplished my Mercy must be approved mankinde must be ransomed and this cannot be done without my Suffering Thy wel-meant valour is no better then a wrong to thy self to the world to me to my Father O gracious Saviour whiles thou thus smitest thy Disciple thou healest him whom thy Disciple smote Many greater Miracles hadst thou done none that bewraied more mercy and meeknesse then this last Cure
or of a Disciple Give me leave O Saviour to borrow thine own words Verily I have not found so great faith no not in all Israel He saw thee hanging miserably by him and yet styles thee Lord he saw thee dying yet talks of thy Kingdome he felt himself dying yet talks of a future remembrance O Faith stronger then death that can look beyond the Crosse at a Crown beyond dissolution at a remembrance of Life and Glory Which of thine eleven were heard to speak so gracious a word to thee in these thy last pangs After thy Resurrection and knowledge of thine impassible condition it was not strange for them to talk of thy Kingdome but in the midst of thy shamefull death for a dying malefactor to speak of thy reigning and to implore thy remembrance of himself in thy Kingdome it is such an improvement of Faith as ravisheth my Soul with admiration O blessed Thief that hast thus happily stolne Heaven How worthy hath thy Saviour made thee to be a partner of his sufferings a pattern of undauntable belief a spectacle of unspeakable mercy This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Before I wondred at thy Faith now I envy at thy Felicity Thou cravedst a remembrance thy Saviour speaks of a present possession This day thou suedst for remembrance as a favour to the absent thy Saviour speaks of thy presence with him thou spakest of a Kingdome thy Saviour of Paradise As no Disciple could be more faithfull so no Saint could be happier O Saviour what a precedent is this of thy free and powerfull grace Where thou wilt give what unworthinesse can barre us from Mercy when thou wilt give what time can prejudice our vocation who can despair of thy goodnesse when he that in the morning was posting towards Hell is in the evening with thee in Paradise Lord he could not have spoken this to thee but by thee and from thee What possibility was there for a thief to think of thy Kingdome without thy Spirit That good Spirit of thine breathed upon this man breathed not upon his fellow their trade was alike their sin was alike their state alike their crosse alike only thy Mercy makes them unlike One is taken the other is refused Blessed be thy Mercy in taking one blessed be thy Justice in leaving the other Who can despair of that Mercy who cannot but tremble at that Justice Now O ye cruell Priests and Elders of the Jews ye have full leisure to feed your eyes with the sight ye so much longed for there is the blood ye purchased and is not your malice yet glutted Is not all this enough without your taunts and scoffs and sports at so exquisite a misery The people the passengers are taught to insult where they should pity Every man hath a scorn ready to cast at a dying innocent A generous nature is more wounded with the tongue then with the hand O Saviour thine eare was more painfully pierced then thy brows 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 sleabitings were these in comparison of those inward torments which thy Soul felt in the sense and apprehension of thy Fathers 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 nethermost hell Whiles thine eternall Father lookt 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 marvel now if darkness were upon the face of the whole earth when thy Fathers 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 cordial 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 powrest 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 woful 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 farre 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 eternal 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 horror yet we know there can be no danger in the forsaking whiles 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 eternal Essence we come in by Grace and merciful election yet whiles thou shalt inable me to say My God I shall hope never to sink under thy desertions But whiles I am transported with the sense of thy Sufferings O Saviour let me not forget to admire those sweet Mercies of thine which thou powredst out upon thy Persecutors 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 aganst 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 Jewes ye would be miserable he will not
for thanks who would be a debter With the God of Mercy this cheap payment is current If he then will honour us so far as to be blessed of us Oh let us honour him so far as to blesse him Quare verbis parcam gratuita sunt Why do we spare thanks that cost us nothing as that wise heathen O give unto the Lord ye mighty give unto the Lord the praises due to his name offer to God the sacrifice of thanksgiving and still let the foot of our song be Blessed be the Lord. This for the Descant of gratulation the Ground follows His own sake hath reason to be first God will be blessed both as Jah and Adonai the one the style of his Essence the other of his Soveraignty Even the most accursed Deist would confesse that as a pure simple infinite absolute being God is to be blessed for if Being be good and these two be convertible Nature must needs teach him that an absolute and infinite Being must needs be absolutely and infinitely good But what do I blur the Glory of this Day with mention of those Monsters whose Idol is Nature whose Religion is secondary Atheism whose true region is the lowest Hell Those damned Ethnicks cannot will not conceive of God as he is because they impiously sever his Essence from his inward Relations We Christians can never be so heavenly affected to God as we ought till we can rise to this pitch of Piety to blesse God for what he is in himself without the external beneficial relations to the creature Else our respects reflect too much homeward and we do but look through God at our selves Neither is it for us only to blesse him as an absolute God but as a Soveraign Lord too whose Power hath no more limit then his Essence the great Moderator of Heaven and earth giving laws to his creature overruling all things marshalling all events crushing his enemies maintaining his Church adored by Angels trembled at by Devils Behold here a Lord worthy to be blessed We honour as we ought your conspicuous Greatness O ye eminent Potentates of the earth but alas what is this to the great Lord of Heaven when we look up thither we must crave leave to pity the breath of your nostrils the rust of your Coronets the dust of your graves the sting of your felicities and if ye take not good heed the blots of your memories As ye hold all in â—ee from this great Lord so let it be no disparagement to you to doe your lowliest homage to his footstool homage I mean in Action give me the reall benediction I am sure that is the best They blesse God that praise him they blesse him more and praise him best that obey him There are that crouch to you Great ones who yet hate you Oh let us take heed of offering these hollow observances to the searcher of hearts if we love not our own confusion They that proclaimed Christ at Jerusalem had not only Hosanna in their mouths but palms in their hands too so must we have Let me say then If the Hand bless not the Lord the Tongue is an Hypocrite Away with the wast complements of our vain Formalities Let our loud actions drown the language of our words in blessing the name of the Lord. Neither must we bless God as a Soveraign Lord only but which is yet a more feeling relation as a munificent Benefactor Who loadeth us daily with benefits Such is man's self-love that no inward worth can so attract his praises as outward beneficence Whiles thou makest much of thy self every one shall speak well of thee how much more whiles thou makest much of them Here God hath met with us also Not to perplex you with scanning the variety of senses wherewith I have observed this Psalm above all other of David's to abound see here I beseech you a four-fold gradation of Divine Bounty First here are Benefits The word is not expressed in the Original but necessarily implied in the sense for there are but three loads whereof man is capable from God Favours Precepts Punishments the other two are out of the road of Gratulation When we might therefore have exspected Judgments behold hold Benefits And those secondly not sparingly handfulled out to us but dealt to us by the whole load loadeth with benefits Whom thirdly doth he load but us Not worthy and well-deserving subjects but us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rebels And lastly this he doth not at one doal and no more as even churls rare Feasts use to be plentifull but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 successively unweariedly perpetually One favour were too much here are Benefits a sprinkling were too much here is a load once were too oft here is daily largition Cast your eyes therefore a little upon this threefold exaggeration of Beneficence the measure a load of benefits the subject unworthy us the time daily Who daily loadeth us with benefits Where shall we begin to survey this vast load of Mercies Were it no more but that he hath given us a world to live in a life to injoy aire to breath in earth to tread on fire to warm us water to cool and cleanse us cloaths to cover us food to nourish us sleep to refresh us houses to shelter us variety of creatures to serve and delight us here were a just load But now if we yet adde to these civility of breeding dearnesse of friends competency of Estate degrees of Honour honesty or dignity of vocation favour of Princes successe in imployments domestick comforts outward peace good reputation preservation from dangers rescue from evils the load is well mended If yet ye shall come closer and adde due proportion of Body integrity of parts perfection of senses strength of nature mediocrity of health sufficiency of appetite vigour of digestion wholsome temper of seasons freedome from cares this course must needs heighten it yet more If still ye shall adde to these the order and power and exercise of our inward Faculties inriched with Wisdome Art Learning Experience expressed by a not-unhandsome Elocution and shall now lay all these together that concern Estate Body Minde how can the axel-tree of the Soul but crack under the load of these Favours But if from what God hath done for us as men we look to what he hath done for us as Christians that he hath imbraced us with an everlasting Love that he hath molded us anew enlivened us by his Spirit fed us by his Word Sacraments clothed us with his Merits bought us with his Blood becoming vile to make us glorious a Curse to invest us with Blessedness in a word that he hath given himself to us his Son for us Oh the height and depth and breadth of the rich mercies of our God! Oh the boundlesse toplesse bottomlesse load of Divine benefits whose immensity reaches from the center of this earth to the unlimited extent of the very Empyreal Heavens Oh that men would praise the
our Earth ready to sink under the load of his Mercies What Nation under Heaven hath not envied and wondred at our Blessings I do not carry back your eyes to the ancient favours of our God to the memorable frustrations of â—â—â—ein Invasions to the miraculous discoveries of Treasons to the successfull maintenance of oppressed neighbourhood That one mercy I may not forget that in the shutting up of blessed Queen Elizabeth the Pope and the then-King of Spain were casting Lots for the Crown and palpably plotting for their severally-designed Successors as appears in the publick posthume Letters of Cardinal D' Ossat a witnesse beyond exception Three several Briefs were addressed hither by that inclement shaveling of Rome for the defeating of the Title and Succession of our late Soveraign of dear and blessed memory and his Royal Issue Yet in spight of Rome and Hell God brought him in and set him peaceably upon this just Throne of his Fore-fathers and may he perpetuate it to the fruit of those loyns till world and time shall be no more Amen If I must follow the times let me rather balk that hellish Sulphur-mine then not search it and yet who can look at that any otherwise then the Jews do at the Rain-bow with horror and astonishment What do I tell you of our long Peace our full Plenty our wholsome Laws our easefull Government with a world of these common favours It is for poor men to reckon Those two late Blessings if no more were worthy of immortal memory the Prince out of Spain Religion out of the dust For the one what a winter was there in all good hearts when our Sun was gone so far Southward how chearfull a Spring in his return For the other who saw not how Religion began during those purposely-protracted Treaties to droop and languish her friends to sigh her enemies to insult daring to brave us with challenges to threaten our ruine The Lord looked down from Heaven and visited this poor Vine of his and hath shaken off these Caterpillars from her then-wasting leaves now we live and it flourisheth These would have been great favours of God even to the best Nation but more to us who have answered Mercies with Rebellions O God if proud disguises if gluttonous pamperings if drunken healths if wanton dalliances if bloody oaths if mercilesse oppressions may earn Blessings from thee too many of us have supererogated Woe is me these are the measures thou hast had from too many hands That thou shouldst therefore inlarge thy bounty to an unworthy unkinde disobedient generation it is more then we can wonder at and we could almost be ready to say with Peter Lord depart from us for we are sinfull men Yet the wise Justice of the Almighty meant not to cocker us up with mere dainties with a loose indulgence but hath thought fit to temper our sweets with tartnesse and to strike our backs whiles he strokes our heads Ecce in pace amaritudo amarissima the comfort of our Peace was allayed with the bitternesse of death He saw that in this common Plethorie it was fit for us to bleed he saw us Eeles that would not be caught but when the waters were troubled He therefore sent his destroying Angel abroad who laid about him on all sides What slaughter what lamentation what horror was there in the streets of our mother City More then twenty thousand Families run from their houses as if those had been on fire over their heads and seek shelter in Zoar and the mountains Some of them are overtaken by the pursuer and drop down in the way and lie there as wofull spectacles of mortality till necessity and not Charity could finde them a grave Others passe on and for friends finde strangers Danger made men wisely and unwillingly unhospital The Cozen the Brother forgets his own blood and the Father looks shily upon his own childe and welcomes him with frowns if not with repulses There were that repai'd their grudged harbour with infection And those that sped best what with care for their abandoned houses and estate what with grief for the misery of their forsaken neighbours what with the rage of those Epidemical diseases which they found abroad as it is well observed by one that in a contagious time all sicknesses have some tincture of Pestilence wore out their daies in the deepest sorrow and heavinesse There leave we them and return to the miserable Metropolis of this Kingdome which they left Who can expresse the dolefull condition of that time and place The arms of London are the Red Cross and the Sword what house almost wanted these Here was the Red Cross upon the door the Sword of God's Judgment within doors and the Motto was Lord have mercy upon us What could we hear but alarms of death what could we see but Trophees of death Here was nothing but groaning and crying and dying and burying Carts were the Biers wide pits were the Graves mens cloaths were their Coffins and the very Exequies of friends were murderous The carkasses of the dead might say with the sons of the Prophets Behold the place where we lie is too streight for us New Dormitories are bought for the dead and furnished neither might the corpses be allowed to lie single in their earthen beds but are piled up like fagots in a stack for the society of their future Resurrection No man survived but he might say with the Psalmist that thousands fell at his side and ten thousands at his right hand And if we take all together the mother and the daughters surely the number was not much short of David's though his time were shorter It is not without reason that from the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies the Plague is derived 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies a Desart Certainly the Plague turns the most populous City into a Desart Oh the wofull desolation of this place It was almost come to Herba tegit Trojam And if some infrequent passenger crossed our streets it was not without his medicated Posie at his nose and his Zedoary or Angelica in his mouth Every room seemed a Pest-house every sent mortal Here should he meet one pale ghost muffled up under the throat another dragging his legs after him for the tumor of his groin another bespotted with the Tokens of instant death here might he hear one shreeking out in a frantick distraction there another breathing out his Soul in his last groans What should I say more This glorious chamber of the Kingdome seemed no other then a dreadfull dungeon to her own a very Golgotha to all beholders and this proud Queen of our British Cities sate in the dust of her compassion howling in the rags of her sackcloth not mourning more then mourned for pitied no lesse then forsaken when the God of our Salvation looked down upon her deep afflictions and miraculously proved unto us that unto him belong the issues from death It was
not Gods that are made with hands Did ever any Ephesian beast bray out such another challenge Is it possible that humane reason should be so brutified as to think a man may make his own God as to seek a Deity in liveless metals as to bow his knees to what hath faln from his fingers O Idolatry the true Sorceress of the world what beasts do thine inchantments make of men Even the fine Athenian not the gross Theban wits were fain to be taught that the Godhead is not like to gold or silver or stone And would to God the modern Superstition were less foppish Hear this ye seduced souls that are taught to worship a pastry-God Ergo adeo stolidi opifices ab se fabrefieri Deos credunt saith our Jesuite Lorinus of these Ephesians These so foolish workmen think they can make their Gods And why not of Gold as well as of Grain why not the Smith as well as the Baker Change but the name the absurdity is but one To hold that a man can make his own fingers or that those fingers can make that wheat whereof the wafer is made were a strange folly but that a man can make the God that made him and eat the God that he hath made is such a monster of Paradoxes as puts down all the fancies of Paganisme and were enough to make a wavering soul say with Averroes Sit anima mea cum Philosophis I remember their learned Montanus upon Luke 22. 19. construes that Hoc est corpus meum thus Verum corpus meum in hoc Sacramento panis continetur sacramentaliter etiam corpus meum mysticum My true body is sacramentally contained in this Sacrament of bread as also my body mystical and withall as willing to say something if he durst speak out addes cujus arcanam mysteriis refertissimam rationem ut explicatiorem habeant homines Christiani dabit aliquando Dominus whose secret and most deeply-mystical meaning God will one day more clearly unfold to his Christian people Now the God of Heaven make good this honest Prophesie and open the eyes of poor mis-led souls that they may see to distinguish betwixt a slight corruptible wafer and an incomprehensible immortal God And if from this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bread-worship I should lead you to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cross-worship and from thence to their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Image-worship you would finde reason enough why that man of Sin the author of these Superstitions should be called the Beast The Violence and impetuosity of these Ephesians was answerable for here was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Trouble verse 23. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Concourse verse 40. then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Confusion and that in the whole City verse 29 and more then that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a furious rushing into the Theatre and then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a boisterous snatching of those that were conceived opposites besides all their shouting and out-cries and savage uproar What should I need to tell you that this furious prosecution is no other then an ordinary symptom of Idolatry and to make it good what should I need to lay before your eyes all those turbulent effects that in our daies have followed malicious Superstition those instigations of publick Invasions those conspiracies against maligned Soveraignty those suffossions of walls those powder-trains those shameless Libels those patrocinations of Treasons and to make up all those late Bulls that bellow out prohibitions of justly-sworn allegeance those bold absolutions from sacred Oaths 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he said of the Lacedaemonians In all these we too well feel that we have to doe with the beast with S. John's beast no whit short of S. Paul's God knows how little pleasure I take in displaying the enormities of our fellow-Christians Although to say as it is not the Church but the Faction is it that by their practice thus merits the title of savageness Of that Faction let me say with sorrow of heart that their wilful opposition to truth their uncharitable and bloody courses their palpable Idolatry hath powred shame and dishonour and hath brought infinite loss and disadvantage to the blessed Name of Christ And now ye see by this time that in the generality natural and vicious men are no other then beasts that specially all contentious adversaries to the Truth and impetuous Idolaters are beasts of S. Paul's Theatre Wherefore then serves all this but to stir us up to a threefold use of holy Thankfulness of Pity of Indignation The two first are those duo ubera Sponsa the two breasts of Christs Spouse as Bernard calls them Congratulation and Compassion The former of Thankfulness to our good God that hath delivered us as from the wretchedness of our corrupt Nature so from blinde and gross misdevotion yea from the tyranny of Superstition Alas what are we better what other then our neighbours that our Goshen should be shined upon whiles their Aegypt is covered with darkness What are we that we should be renewed in the spirit of our mindes and be created according to the Image of God whiles they continue in the woful deformation of their bestial corruptions that our Understanding should be inlightned with the beams of Divine truth whereas those poor souls are left in the natural dungeon of their ignorance or groveling to base earthly unreasonable traditions O God of mercies had it pleased thee to give them our illumination and attraction and to have left us in their miserable darkness and indocility we had been as they are and they perhaps had been as we should be Non nobis Domine Not unto us Lord not unto us but to thy Name let the praise be given of this thy gracious sequestration and thou that onely hast done it take to thy self the glory and improvement of thine own work Of Pity and yearning of bowels whether to those careless unregenerates that cannot so much as complain of their too-pleasing corruptions but applaud themselves in the free scope of their own brutish sensuality as if they had made a covenant with death an agreement with hell or whether to our poor seduced brethren that are nursed up in an invincible ignorance of Truth and are held down with the imperious sway of Antichristian usurpation Alas it is too true which our learned Spalatensis why should I not call him ours who sealed up that truth of ours which his pen had so stoutly maintained with his last blood hath observed and published Nam plebem rudiorem c. that the ruder multitude under the Papacy are carried commonly with more inward religious affection toward the Blessed Virgin or some other Saint then towards Christ himself Whose heart would not bleed at the thought of this deplorable irreligion and yet these poor souls think they doe so well as that they cry out of our damnation for not accompanying them At tu Domine usque quò How long Lord how long wilt
day of universal Sessions They believe lesse then Devils that either doubt of or deny that day of finall retribution Oh the wonderfull mercy of our God that both to wicked men and spirits respites the utmost of their torment He might upon the first instant of the fall of Angels have inflicted on them the highest extremity of his vengeance He might upon the first sins of our youth yea of our nature have swept us away and given us our portion in that fierie lake He staies a time for both though with this difference of mercy to us men that here not onely is a delay but may be an utter prevention of punishment which to the evil spirits is altogether impossible They do suffer they must suffer and though they have now deserved to suffer all they must yet they must once suffer more then they do Yet so doth this evil spirit expostulate that he sues I beseech thee torment me not The world is well changed since Satan's first onset upon Christ Then he could say If thou be the Son of God now Jesu the Son of the most high God then All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me now I beseech thee torment me not The same power when he lists can change the note of the Tempter to us How happy are we that have such a Redeemer as can command the Devils to their chains Oh consider this ye lawlesse sinners that have said Let us break his bonds and cast his cords from us However the Almighty suffers you for a judgement to have free scope to evil and ye can now impotently resist the revealed will of your Creator yet the time shall come when ye shall see the very masters whom ye have served the powers of darkness unable to avoid the revenges of God How much lesse shall man strive with his Maker man whose breath is in his nostrils whose house is clay whose foundation is the dust Nature teaches every creature to wish a freedome from pain The foulest spirits cannot but love themselves and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evil Yet what a thing is this to hear the Devil at his prayers I beseech thee torment me not Devotion is not guilty of this but fear There is no grace in the suit of Devils but nature no respect of Glory to their Creator but their own ease They cannot pray against sin but against torment for sin What news is it now to hear the profanest mouth in extremity imploring the Sacred Name of God when the Devils do so The worst of all creatures hates punishment and can say Lead me not into pain onely the good heart can say Lead me not into temptation If we can as heartily pray against sin for the avoiding of displeasure as against punishment when we have displeased there is true Grace in the Soul Indeed if we could fervently pray against Sin we should not need to pray against Punishment which is no other then the inseparable shadow of that body but if we have not laboured against our Sins in vain do we pray against Punishment God must be just and the wages of sin is death It pleased our Holy Saviour not only to let fall words of command upon this spirit but to interchange some speeches with him All Christ's actions are not for example It was the errour of our Grandmother to hold chat with Satan That God who knows the craft of that old Serpent and our weak simplicity hath charged us not to enquire of an evil spirit Surely if the Disciples returning to Jacob's Well wondred to see Christ talk with a woman well may we wonder to see him talking with an unclean Spirit Let it be no presumption O Saviour to ask upon what grounds thou didst this wherein we may not follow thee We know that sin was excepted in thy conformity of thy self to us we know there was no guile found in thy mouth no possibility of taint in thy nature in thine actions neither is it hard to conceive how the same thing may be done by thee without sin which we cannot but sin in doing There is a vast difference in the intention in the Agent For on the one side thou didst not ask the name of the spirit as one that knew not and would learn by inquiring but that by the confession of that mischief which thou pleasedst to suffer the grace of the Cure might be the more conspicuous the more glorious So on the other God and man might doe that safely which mere man cannot doe without danger Thou mightest touch the Leprosie and not be legally unclean because thou touchedst it to heal it didst not touch it with possibility of infection So mightest thou who by reason of the perfection of thy Divine nature wert uncapable of any stain by the interlocution with Satan safely conferre with him whom corrupt man pre-disposed to the danger of such a parlee may not meddle with without sin because not without perill It is for none but God to hold discourse with Satan Our surest way is to have as little to doe with that Evil one as we may and if he shall offer to maintain conference with us by his secret Tentations to turn our speech unto our God with the Archangel The Lord rebuke thee Satan It was the presupposition of him that knew it that not onely men but spirits have names This then he asks not out of an ignorance or curiosity nothing could be hid from him who calleth the Stars and all the hoasts of Heaven by their names but out of a just respect to the glory of the Miracle he was working whereto the notice of the name would not a little avail For if without inquiry or confession our Saviour had ejected this evil spirit it had passed for the single dispossession of one onely Devil whereas now it appears there was a combination and hellish champertie in these powers of darknesse which were all forced to vaile unto that Almighty command Before the Devil had spoken singularly of himself What have I to doe with thee and I beseech thee torment me not Our Saviour yet knowing that there was a multitude of Devils lurking in that breast who dissembled their presence wrests it out of the Spirit by this interrogation What is thy name Now can those wicked ones no longer hide themselves He that asked the question forced the answer My name is Legion The author of discord hath borrowed a name of war from that military order of discipline by which the Jews were subdued doth the Devil fetch his denomination They were many yet they say My name not Our name though many they speak as one they act as one in this possession There is a marvellous accordance even betwixt evil spirits That Kingdome is not divided for then it could not stand I wonder not that wicked men do so conspire in evil that there is such unanimity in the broachers and abettors of errors
and felicity if his absence could be grievous his return shall be happy and glorious Even so Lord Jesus come quickly In the mean while it is not Heaven that can keep thee from me it is not earth that can keep me from thee Raise thou up my Soul to a life of Faith with thee let me ever injoy thy conversation whiles I exspect thy return A SERMON OF PUBLICK THANKSGIVING For the wonderful Mitigation of the late Mortalitie Preached before His Majestie upon His gracious Command at His Court of Whitehall Jan. 29. 1625. and upon the same Command published by JOS. HALL Dean of Worcester Psal 68. vers 19 20. Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation Selah He that is our God is the God of Salvation and unto God the Lord belong the issues from death YEa blessed be the Lord who hath added this unto the load of his other Mercies to his unworthy servant that the same Tongue which was called not long since to chatter out our Publick Mournings in the Solemn Fast of this place is now imployed in a Song of Praise and the same Hand which was here lifted up for Supplication is now lift up in Thanksgiving Ye that then accompanied me with your tears and sighs accompany me now I beseech you in this happy change of note and time with your joyful Smiles and Acclamations to the GOD that hath wrought it It is not more natural for the Sun when it looks upon a moist and wellfermented earth to cause Vapors to ascend thence then it is for Greatness and Goodness when they both meet together upon an honest heart to draw up holy desires of gratulation The worth of the Agent doth it not alone without a â—it disposition in the Subject Let the Sun cast his strongest beams upon a flint a pumice he fetches out no stream Even so the Greatness and Goodness of the Almighty beating upon a dry and hard heart prevailes nothing Here all three are happily met In God infinite Greatness infinite Goodness such Greatness that he is attended with thousand thousands of Angels a Guard fit for the King of Heaven such Goodness that he receives Gifts even for the rebellious In David a Gracious heart that in a sweet sense of the great Goodness of his God breaths out this Divine Epiphonema Blessed be the Lord who loadeth us daily with benefits even the God of our Salvation c. Wherein methinks the sweet Singer of Israel seems to raise his note to the emulation of the Quire of Heaven in the melody of their Allelujahs yea let me say now that he sings above in that Blessed Consort of glorious Spirits his Ditty cannot be better then this that he sung here upon earth and wherein we are about to bear our parts at this time Prepare I beseech you both your eares for David's Song and your hearts and tongues for your own And first in this Angelical strain your thoughts cannot but observe without me the Descant and the Ground The Descant of Gratulation Blessed be the Lord wherein is both Applause and Excitation an Applause given to God's Goodness and an Excitation of others to give that Applause The Ground is a threefold respect Of what God is in himself God and Lord Of what God is and doth to us which loadeth us daily with benefits Of what he is both in himself and to us The God of our Salvation which last like to some rich Stone is set off with a dark foyl To God the Lord belong the issues from death So in the first for his own sake in the second for our sakes in the third for his own and ours as God as Lord as a Benefactor as a Saviour and Deliverer Blessed be the Lord. It is not hard to observe that David's Allelujahs are more then his Hosannas his thanks more then his suits Oft-times doth he praise God when be begs nothing seldome ever doth he beg that favour for which he doth not raise up his Soul to an anticipation of Thanks neither is this any other then the universal under-song of all his Heavenly Ditties Blessed be the Lord. Praised as our former Translation hath it is too low Honour is more then Praise Blessing is more then Honour Neither is it for nothing that from this word Barac to bless is derived Berec the knee which is bowed in blessing and the cryer before Joseph proclaimed Abrech calling for the honour of the knee from all beholders Gen. 41. 43. Every slight trivial acknowledgement of worth is a Praise Blessing is in a higher strain of gratitude that carries the whole sway of the heart with it in a kinde of Divine rapture Praise is in matter of complement Blessing of Devotion The Apostle's Rule is that the less is blessed of the greater Abraham of the King of Salem The Prophets charge is that the greater should be blessed of the less yea the greatest of the least God of man This agrees well Blessing is an act that will bear reciprocation God blesseth man and man blesseth God God blesseth man imperatively man blesseth God optatively God blesseth man in the acts of Mercy man blesseth God in the notions in the expressions of thanks God blesses man when he makes him good and happy man blesseth God when he confesseth how good how gracious how glorious he is so as the blessing is wholly taken up in agnition in celebration in the one we acknowledge the Bounty of God to us in the other we magnifie him vocally really for that Bounty Oh see then what high account God makes of the affections and actions of his poor silly earth-creeping creatures that he gives us in them power to bless himself and takes it as an honour to be blessed of us David wonders that God should so vouchsafe to bless man how much more must we needs wonder at the mercy of God that will vouchsafe to be blessed by man a worm an atome a nothing Yet both S. James tels us that with the tongue we bless God and the Psalmist calls for it here as a service of dear acceptation Blessed be the Lord. Even we men live not Cameleon-like with the aire of thanks nor feed ere the fatter with praises how much less our Maker O God we know well that whatsoever men or Angels doe or doe not thou canst not but be infinitely Blessed in thy self before ever any creature was thou didst equally injoy thy blessed Self from all Eternity what can this worthless loose filme of flesh either adde to or detract from thine Infiniteness Yet thou that humblest thy self to behold the things that are done in Heaven and earth humblest thy self also to accept the weak breath of our Praises that are sent up to thee from earth to Heaven How should this incourage the vows the endeavours of our hearty thankfulness to see them graciously taken Would men take up with good words with good desires and quit our bonds
Lord for his goodnesse and declare the wonders that he doth for the children of men These Mercies are great in themselves our unworthiness doth greaten them more To doe good to the well-deserving were but retribution He ladeth us who are no lesse rebellious to him then he is beneficial to us Our streight and shallow bounty picks out the worthiest and most capable Subject the greatest gift that ever God gave he gives us whiles we are enemies It was our Saviour's charge to his Disciples Interrogate quis dignus Ask who is worthy that is as Hierom interprets it of the honour to receive such guests Should God stand upon those terms with us what should become of us See and wonder and be ashamed O ye Christian hearers God loads us and we load him God loads us with Benefits we load him with our Sins Behold I am pressed under you saith God as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves Amos 2. 13. He should goe away laden with our thanks with the presents of our duty and we shamefully clog him with our continual provocations Can there be here any danger of self-sacrificing with Sejanus and not rather the just danger of our shame and confusion in our selves How can we but hate this unkinde and unjust unanswerablenesse Yet herein shall we make an advantage of our foulest sins that they give so much more lustre to the glorious mercies of our God who overcomes our evil with good and loads even us The over-long interruption of favours loseth their thanks and the best benefits languish in too much disuse Our God takes order for that by a perpetuation of beneficence he ladeth us daily Every day every minute renews his favours upon us Semper largitor semper donator as Hierome To speak strictly there is no time present nothing is present but an instant and that can no more be called Time then a prick can be called a Line yet how swift soever the wings of Time are they cannot cut one instant but they must carry with them a successive renovation of God's gracious kindness to us This Sun of his doth not rise once in an age or once in a year but every minute since it was created riseth to some parts of the earth and every day to us Neither doth he once hurl down upon our heads some violent drops in a storm but he plies us with the sweet showrs of the former and the latter rain Wherein the Mercy of God condescends to our impotency who are ready to perish under uncomfortable intermissions Non mihi sufficit saith that Father It is not enough that he hath given me once if he give me not alwaies To daies Ague makes us forget yesterstaies health Former meals do not relieve our present hunger This cottage of ours ruines straight if it be not new daubed every day new repaired The liberal care of our God therefore tiles over one benefit with another that it may not rain through And if he be so unwearied in his Favours why are we weary of our Thanks Our bonds are renewed every day to our God why not our payments Not once in a year or moon or week but every day once without fail were the Legal Sacrifices reiterated and that of all those creatures which were necessary for sustentation a Lamb flowre wine oyle that is meat bread drink sauce Why but that in all these we should still daily re-acknowledge our new obligations to the giver Yea ex plenitudine lacrymis as it is in the Original Exod. 22. 29. of our plenty and tears that is as Cajetan of a dear or cheap year must we return more or lesse may not misse our thanks We need daily we beg daily Give us this day we receive daily why do we not daily retribute to our God and act as some read it Blessed be the Lord daily who loadeth us with his benefits It is time now to turn your eyes to that mixt respect that reacheth both to God and us Ye have seen him a Benefactor see him a Saviour and Deliverer The God of our Salvation The Vulgar's salutaria following the Septuagint differs from our Salvation but as the Means from the End With the Hebrews Salvation is a wide word comprising all the favours of God that may tend to preservation and therefore the Psalmist elsewhere extends this act both to man and beast and as if he would comment upon himself expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 save by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prosper Psal 118. 25. It is so dear a title of God that the Prophet cannot have enough of it the interposition of a Selah cannot bar the redoubling of it in my Text. Every deliverance every preservation fathers it self upon God yet as the Soul is the most precious thing in the world and life is the most precious thing that belongs to the Soul and eternal life is the best of lives and the danger and losse of this life is the fearfullest and most horrible chiefly is this greatest Salvation here meant wherein God intends most to blesse and be blessed Of this Salvation is he the God by Preordination by Purchace by Gift By Preordination in that he hath decreed it to us from eternity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 30. By Purchace in that he hath bought it for us and us to it by the price of his blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 6. 20. By Gift in that he hath feoft us in it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6. 23. Since therefore he decreed it he bought it he bestows it justly is he the God of our Salvation Who can who dates arrogate to himself any partnership in this great work What power can dispose of the Souls final condition but the same that made it Who can give Eternity but he that onely hath it What but an infinite Merit can purchase an infinite Glory Cursed be that spirit that will offer to share with his Maker Down with your Crowns O ye glorious Elders at the foot of him that sits on the Throne with a Non nobis Domine Not unto us O Lord not unto us but to thy Name give the praise Away with the proud incroachment of the Merits of the best Saints of Papal Largesses Only our God is the God of our Salvation How happy are we the while All actions are according to the force of the Agent weak Causes produce feeble Effects contingent casual necessary certain Our Salvation therefore being the work of an infinitely-powerfull cause cannot be disappointed Loe the beauty of Solomon's Al-chum who hath resisted his will When we look to our own fleshie hands here is nothing but discouragement when we look to our spiritual enemies here is nothing but terrour but when we cast up our eyes to the Mighty God here is nothing but confidence nothing but comfort Comfort ye comfort ye therefore O ye feeble Souls and send your bold defiances to the Prince