didst we have reason to be patient thou enduredst what we do we have reason to be thankfull But what shall we say to this thine early hunger The morning as it is privileged from excess so from need the stomack is not wont to rise with the body Surely as thine occasions were no season was exempted from thy want thou hadst spent the day before in the holy labour of thy Reformation after a supperless departure thou spentest the night in Prayer no meal refreshed thy toil What do we think much to forbear a morsell or to break a sleep for thee who didst thus neglect thy self for us As if meat were no part of thy care as if any thing would serve to stop the mouth of hunger thy breakfast is expected from the next Tree A Fig-tree grew by the way side full grown well spred thick leaved and such as might promise enough to a remote eye thither thou camest to seek that which thou foundest not and not finding what thou soughtest as displeased with thy disappointment cursedst that plant which deluded thy hopes Thy breath instantly blasted that deceitfull tree it did no otherwise then the whole world must needs doe wither and die with thy Curse O Saviour I had rather wonder at thine actions then discuss them If I should say that as man thou either knewest not or consideredst not of this fruitlesness it could no way prejudice thy Divine Omniscience this infirmity were no worse then thy weariness or hunger It was no more disparagement to thee to grow in Knowledge then in Stature neither was it any more disgrace to thy perfect Humanity that thou as man knewest not all things at once then that thou wert not in thy childhood at thy full growth But herein I doubt not to say it is more likely thou camest purposely to this Tree knowing the barrenness of it answerable to the season and fore-resolving the event that thou mightest hence ground the occasion of so instructive a Miracle like as thou knewest Lazarus was dying was dead yet wouldst not seem to take notice of his dissolution that thou mightest the more glorifie thy Power in his resuscitation It was thy willing and determined disappointment for a greater purpose But why didst thou curse a poor Tree for the want of that fruit which the season yielded not If it pleased thee to call for that which it could not give the Plant was innocent and if innocent why cursed O Saviour it is fitter for us to adore then to examine We may be sawcy in inquiring after thee and fond in answering for thee If that season were not for a ripe fruit yet for some fruit it was Who knows not the nature of the Fig-tree to be always bearing That plant if not altogether barren yields a continuall succession of increase whilst one fig iâ— ripe another is green the same bough can content both our tast and our hope This tree was defective in both yielding nothing but an empty shade to the mis-hoping traveller Besides that I have learn'd that thou O Saviour wert wont not to speak onely but to work Parables And what was this other then a reall Parable of thine All this while hadst thou been in the world thou hadst given many proofs of thy Mercy the earth was full of thy Goodness none of thy Judgments now immediately before thy Passion thou thoughtest fit to give this double demonstration of thy just austerity How else should the world have seen thou canst be severe as well as meek and mercifull And why mightest not thou who madest all things take liberty to destroy a plant for thine own Glory Wherefore serve thy best creatures but for the praise of thy Mercy and Justice What great matter was it if thou who once saidst Let the earth bring forth the herb yielding seed and the tree yielding the fruit of its own kind shalt now say Let this fruitless tree wither All this yet was done in figure In this act of thine I see both an Embleme and a Prophecy How didst thou herein mean to teach thy Disciples how much thou hatest an unfruitfull profession and what judgments thou meantest to bring upon that barren generation Once before hadst thou compared the Jewish Nation to a Fig-tree in the midst of thy vineyard which after three years expectation and culture yielding no fruit was by thee the Owner doomed to a speedy excision now thou actest what thou then saidst No tree abounds more with leaf and shade no Nation abounded more with Ceremoniall observations and semblances of Piety Outward profession where there is want of inward truth and reall practice doth but help to draw on and aggravate judgment Had this Fig-tree been utterly bare and leafless it had perhaps escaped the Curse Hear this ye vain Hypocrites that care onely to shew well never caring for the sincere truth of a conscionable Obedience your fair outside shall be sure to help you to a Curse That which was the fault of this Tree is the punishment of it fruitlesness Let no fruit grow on thee hence-forward for ever Had the boughs been appointed to be torn down and the body split in pieces the doom had been more easie that juicy plant might yet have recovered and have lived to recompense this deficiency now it shall be what it was fruitless Woe be to that Church or Soul that is punished with her own Sin Outward plagues are but favours in comparison of Spirituall judgments That Curse might well have stood with a long continuance the Tree might have lived long though fruitless but no sooner is the word passed then the leaves flag and turn yellow the branches wrinkle and shrink the bark discolours the root dries the plant withers O God what creature is able to abide the blasting of the breath of thy displeasure Even the most great and glorious Angels of Heaven could not stand one moment before thine anger but perish'd under thy wrath everlastingly How irresistible is thy Power how dreadfull are thy Judgements Lord chastise my fruitlesness but punish it not at least punish it but curse it not lest I wither and be consumed XLIV CHRIST Betrayed SUch an eye-sore was Christ that raised Lazarus and Lazarus whom Christ raised to the envious Priests Scribes Elders of the Jews that they consult to murther both Whilst either of them lives neither can the glory of that Miracle die nor the shame of the oppugners Those malicious heads are laid together in the Parlour of Caiaphas Happy had it been for them if they had spent but half those thoughts upon their own Salvation which they misimployed upon the destruction of the innocent At last this results that Force is not their way Subtlety and Treachery must doe that which should be vainly attempted by Power Who is so fit to work this feat against Christ as one of his own There can be no Treason where is not some Trust Who so fit among the domesticks as he that bare
Pharisee entertains him and hath his table honoured with the publick remission of a penitent sinner with the heavenly doctrine of remission Zacchaeus entertains him salvation came that day to his house with the Authour of it That presence made the Publican a son of Abraham Matthew is recompensed for his feast with an Apostleship Martha and Mary entertain him and besides Divine instruction receive their brother from the dead O Saviour whether thou feast us or we feast thee in both of them is blessedness Where a Publican is the Feast-master it is no marvel if the guests be Publicans and Sinners Whether they came alone out of the hope of that mercy which they saw their fellow had found or whether Matthew invited them to be partners of that plentifull grace whereof he had tasted I inquire not Publicans and Sinners will flock together the one hatefull for their trade the other for their vicious life Common contempt hath wrought them to an unanimity and sends them to seek mutual comfort in that society which all others held loathsome and contagious Moderate correction humbleth and shameth the offender whereas a cruel severity makes men desperate and drives them to those courses whereby they are more dangerously infected How many have gone into the prison faulty and returned flagitious If Publicans were not Sinners they were no whit beholden to their neighbours What a table-full was here The Son of God beset with Publicans and Sinners O happy Publicans and Sinners that had found out their Saviour O mercifull Saviour that disdained not Publicans and Sinners What sinner can fear to kneel before thee when he sees Publicans and Sinners sit with thee Who can fear to be despised of thy meekness and mercy which didst not abhor to converse with the outcasts of men Thou didst not despise the Thief confessing upon the Cross nor the Sinner weeping upon thy feet nor the Canaanite crying to thee in the way nor the blushing Adulteress nor the odious Publican nor the forswearing Disciple nor the persecutour of Disciples nor thine own Executioners How can we be unwelcome to thee if we come with tears in our eyes faith in our hearts restitution in our hands O Saviour our breasts are too oft shut upon thee thy bosome is ever open to us We are as great sinners as the consorts of these Publicans why should we despair of a room at thy Table The squint-eyed Pharisees look a-cross at all the actions of Christ where they should have admired his mercy they cavil at his holiness They said to his Disciples Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners They durst not say thus to the Master whose answer they knew would soon have convinced them This wind they hoped might shake the weak faith of the Disciples They speak where they may be most likely to hurt All the crue of Satanical instruments have learnt this craft of their old Tutour in Paradise We cannot reverence that man whom we think unholy Christ had lost the hearts of his followers if they had entertained the least suspicion of his impurity which the murmur of these envious Pharisees would fain insinuate He cannot be worthy to be followed that is unclean He cannot but be unclean that eateth with Publicans and Sinners Proud and foolish Pharisees Ye fast whilst Christ eateth ye fast in your houses whilst Christ eateth in other mens ye fast with your own whilst Christ feasts with sinners But if ye fast in pride whilst Christ eats in humility if ye fast at home for merit or popularity whilst Christ feasts with sinners for compassion for edification for conversion your fast is unclean his feast is holy ye shall have your portion with hypocrites when those Publicans and Sinners shall be glorious When these censurers thought the Disciples had offended they speak not to them but to their Master Why doe thy Disciples that which is not lawfull now when they thought Christ offended they speak not to him but to the Disciples Thus like true make-bates they go about to make a breach in the family of Christ by setting off the one from the other The quick eye of our Saviour hath soon espied the pack of their fraud and therefore he takes the words out of the mouths of his Disciples into his own They had spoke of Christ to the Disciples Christ answers for the Disciples concerning himself The whole need not the Physician but the sick According to the two qualities of pride scorn and over-weening these insolent Pharisees over-rated their own holiness contemned the noted unholiness of others as if themselves were not tainted with secret sins as if others could not be cleansed by repentance The searcher of hearts meets with their arrogance and finds those Justiciaries sinfull those Sinners just The spiritual Physician finds the sickness of those Sinners wholsome the health of those Pharisees desperate that wholsome because it calls for the help of the Physician this desperate because it needs not Every soul is sick those most that feel it not Those that feel it complain those that complain have cure those that feel it not shall find themselves dying ere they can with to recover O blessed Physician by whose stripes we are healed by whose death we live happy are they that are under thy hands sick as of sin so of sorrow for sin It is as unpossible they should die as it is unpossible for thee to want either skill or power or mercy Sin hath made us sick unto death make thou us but as sick of our sins we are as safe as thou art gracious XVII Christ among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd I Do not any-where find so furious a Demoniack as amongst the Gergesens Satan is most tyrannous where he is obeyed most Christ no sooner sailed over the lake then he was met by two possessed Gadarenes The extreme rage of the one hath drowned the mention of the other Yet in the midst of all that cruelty of the evil Spirit there was sometimes a remission if not an intermission of vexation If oft-times Satan caught him then sometimes in the same violence he caught him not It was no thank to that malignant one who as he was indefatigable in his executions so unmeasurable in his malice but to the mercifull over-ruling of God who in a gracious respect to the weakness of his poor creatures limits the spightfull attempts of that immortal Enemy and takes off this Mastive whilst we may take breath He who in his justice gives way to some onsets of Satan in his mercy restrains them so regarding our deservings that withall he regards our strength If way should be given to that malicious spirit we could not subsist no violent thing can endure and if Satan might have his will we should no moment be free He can be no more weary of doing evil to us then God is of doing good Are we therefore preserved from the malignity of these powers of darkness Blessed
as if they had the charge of their Bellies not of their Souls if they have open Cellars it matters not whether their Mouths be open If they be sociable in their carriage favourable and indulgent to their recreations full in their chear how easily doth the world dispense with either their negligence or enormities As if the Souls of these men lay in their weasand in their gut But surely they have reason to expect from their Teachers a due proportion of Hospitality An unmeet parsimony is here not more odious then it is sinfull And where ability wants yet care may not be wanting Those Preachers which are so intent upon their spiritual work that in the mean time they over-strain the weaknesses of their people holding them in their Devotions longer then humane frailty will permit forget not themselves more then their pattern and must be sent to school to these compassionate Disciples who when evening was come sue to Christ for the people's dismission The place was desart the time evening Doubtless our Saviour made choice of both these that there might be both more use and more note of his Miracle Had it been in the morning their stomack had not been up their feeding had been unnecessary Had it been in the Village provision either might have been made or at least would have seemed made by themselves But now that it was both desart and evening there was good ground for the Disciples to move and for Christ to work their sustentation Then onely may we expect and crave help from God when we find our need Superfluous aid can neither be heartily desired nor earnestly lookt for nor thankfully received from the hands of mercy Cast thy burthen upon the Lord and he shall sustain thee If it be not a burthen it is no casting it upon God Hence it is that Divine aid comes ever in the very upshot and exigence of our trialls when we have been exercised and almost tired with long hopes yea with despairs of success that it may be both more longed for ere it come and when it comes more welcome Oh the Faith and Zeal of these clients of Christ They not onely follow him from the City into the Desart from delicacy to want from frequence to solitude but forget their Bodies in pursuit of the food of their Souls Nothing is more hard for an healthfull man to forget then his belly within few hours this will be sure to solicit him and will take no denials Yet such sweetness did these hearers find in the spiritual repast that they thought not on the bodily the Disciples pitied them they had no mercy on themselves By how much more a man's mind is taken up with Heavenly things so much less shall he care for earthly What shall Earth be to us when we are all Spirit And in the mean time according to the degrees of our intellectual elevations shall be our neglect of bodily contentments The Disciples think they move well Send them away that they may buy victuals Here was a strong Charity but a weak Faith A strong Charity in that they would have the people relieved a weak Faith in that they supposed they could not otherwise be so well relieved As a man when he sees many ways lie before him takes that which he thinks both fairest and nearest so do they this way of relief lay openest to their view and promised most Well might they have thought It is as easie for our Master to feed them as to heal them there is an equal facility in all things to a supernatural power yet they say Send them away In all our projects and suits we are still ready to move for that which is most obvious most likely when sometimes that is less agreeable to the will of God The All-wise and Almighty Arbiter of all things hath a thousand secret means to honour himself in his proceedings with us It is not for us to carve boldly for our selves but we must humbly depend on the disposal of his Wisedom and Mercy Our Saviour's answer gives a strange check to their motion They need not depart Not need They had no victuals they must have there was none to be had What more need could be He knew the supply which he intended though they knew it not His command was therefore more strange then his assertion Give ye them to eat Nothing gives what it hath not Had they had victuals they had not called for a dismission and not having how should they give It was thy wisedom O Saviour thus to prepare thy Disciples for the intended Miracle Thou wouldst not doe it abruptly without an intimation both of the purpose of it and the necessity And how modestly dost thou undertake it without noise without ostentation I hear thee not say I will give them to eat no but Give ye as if it should be their act not thine Thus sometimes it pleaseth thee to require of us what we are not able to perform either that thou mayest shew us what we cannot doe and so humble us or that thou mayest erect us to a dependence upon thee which canst doe it for us As when the Mother bids the Infant come to her which hath not yet the steddy use of his legs it is that he may cling the faster to her hand or coat for supportation Thou bidst us impotent wretches to keep thy royal Law Alas what can we Sinners doe there is not one letter of those thy Ten words that we are able to keep This charge of thine intends to shew us not our strength but our weakness Thus thou wouldst turn our eyes both back to what we might have done to what we could have done and upwards to thee in whom we have done it in whom we can doe it He wrongs thy Goodness and Justice that misconstrues these thy commands as if they were of the same nature with those of the Aegyptian task-masters requiring the brick and not giving the straw But in bidding us doe what we cannot thou inablest us to doe what the â—â—â—dest Thy Precepts under the Gospel have not 〈…〉 of our duty but an habilitation of 〈…〉 when thou badest the Disciples to give to the multitude thou meantest to supply unto them what thou commandedst to give Our Saviour hath what he would an acknowledgement of their insufficiency We have here but five loaves and two fishes A poor provision for the family of the Lord of the whole earth Five loaves and those barley two fishes and those little ones We well know O Saviour that the beasts were thine on a thousand mountains all the corn thine that covered the whole surface of the earth all the fowls of the air thine it was thou that providedst those drifts of Quails that fell among the tents of thy rebellious Israelites that rainedst down those showrs of Manna round about their camp and dost thou take up for thy self and thy meiny with five barley loaves and two little fishes Certainly
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 Pharisee's house was not more unproper for a sinner then a Feast was for humiliation Tears at a Banquet are as Jiggs 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 access Doubtless 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 sovereign Dittany 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 finds that Saviour whom she sought she comes in but not empty-handed though debauched she was a Jewess 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 vessell 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 Odours 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 oyl 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 bloud as this woman brought oyntment 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 perfume 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 sensuall 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 righteousness in holiness 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 of 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 amiss O now teach me my God and Saviour to improve all my time all my abilities to thy glory This is all the poor recompence can be made thee for those shamefull dishonours thou hast received from me The Woman is come in and now she doth not boldly face Christ but as unworthy of his presence she stands behind How could she in that site wash his feet with her tears Was it that our Saviour did not sit at the Feast after our fashion but according to the then Jewish and Roman fashion lay on the one side Or was it that this phrase doth not so much import posture as presence Doubtless it was bashfulness and shame arising from the conscience of her own former wickedness that placed her thus How well is the case altered She had wont to look boldly in the face of her Lovers now she dares not behold the awfull countenance of her Saviour She had wont to send her alluring beams forth into the eyes of her wanton paramours now she casts her dejected eyes to the earth and dares not so much as raise them up to see those eyes from which she desired commiseration It was a true inference of the Prophet Thou hast an whore's forehead thou canst not blush there cannot be a greater sign of whorishness then impudence This woman can now blush she hath put off the Harlot and is turned true Penitent Bashfulness is both a sign and effect of Grace O God could we but bethink how wretched we are in nature how vile through our sins how glorious holy and powerfull a God thou art before whom the brightest Angels hide their faces we could not come but with a trembling awfulness into thy presence Together with shame here is sorrow a sorrow testified by tears and tears in such abundance that she washes the feet of our Saviour with those streams of penitence She began to wash his feet with tears We hear when she began we hear not when she ended When the grapes are pressed the juice runs forth so when the mind is pressed tears distill the true juice of penitence and sorrow These eyes were not used to such clouds or to such showrs there was nothing in them formerly but sun-shine of pleasure beams of Lust Now they are resolved into the drops of grief and contrition Whence was this change but from the secret working of God's Spirit He caused his wind to blow and the waters flowed he smote the rock and the waters gushed out O God smite thou this rocky Heart of mine and the waters of Repentance shall burst forth in abundance Never were thy feet O Saviour bedewed with more precious liquour then this of remorsefull tears These cannot be so spent but that thou keepest them in thy bottle yea thou returnest them back with interest of true comfort They that sow in tears shall reap in joy Blessed are they that mourn Lo this wet seed-time shall be followed with an harvest of happiness and glory That this service might be complete as her Eyes were the Ewre so her Hair was the Towell for the feet