Fear as all Passions disquiets the heart and makes it for the time unfit to receive the messages of God Soon hath the Angel cleared these troublesome mists of Passions and sent out the beams of heavenly Consolation into the remotest corner of her Soul by the glad news of her Saviour How can Joy but enter into her heart out of whose womb shall come Salvation What room can Fear find in that breast that is assured of Favour Fear not Mary for thou hast found favour with God Let those fear who know they are in displeasure or know not they are gracious Thine happy estate calls for Confidence and that Confidence for Joy What should what can they fear who are favoured of him at whom the Devils tremble Not the Presence of the good Angels but the Temptations of the evill strike many terrours into our weakness we could not be dismaied with them if we did not forget our condition We have not received the spirit of bondage to fear again but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father If that Spirit O God witness with our spirits that we are thine how can we fear any of those spirituall wickednesses Give us assurance of thy Favour and let the powers of Hell doe their worst It was no ordinary favour that the Virgin found in Heaven No mortall Creature was ever thus graced that he should take part of her nature that was the God of Nature that he who made all things should make his humane Body of hers that her Womb should yield that Flesh which was personally united to the Godhead that she should bear him that upholds the World Loe thou shalt conceive and bear a Son and shalt call his name JESVS It is a question whether there be more wonder in the Conception or in the Fruit the Conception of the Virgin or Jesus conceived Both are marvellous but the former doth not more exceed all other Wonders then the latter exceedeth it For the child of a Virgin is the improvement of that power which created the world but that God should be incarnate of a Virgin was an abasement of his Majesty and an exaltation of the Creature beyond all example Well was that Child worthy to make the Mother blessed Here was a double Conception one in the womb of her Body the other of the Soul If that were more miraculous this was more beneficiall that was her Privilege this was her Happiness If that were singular to her this is common to all his chosen There is no renewed Heart wherein thou O Saviour art not formed again Blessed be thou that hast herein made us blessed For what womb can conceive thee and not partake of thee who can partake of thee and not be happy Doubtless the Virgin understood the Angel as he meant of a present Conception which made her so much more inquisitive into the manner and means of this event How shall this be since I know not a man That she should conceive a Son by the knowledge of Man after her Marriage consummate could have been no wonder But how then should that Son of hers be the Son of God This demand was higher How her present Virginity should be instantly fruitfull might be well worthy of admiration of inquiry Here was desire of information not doubts of infidelity yea rather this question argues Faith it takes for granted that which an unbelieving heart would have stuck at She says not Who and whence art thou what Kingdome is this where and when shall it be erected but smoothly supposing all those strange things would be done she insists onely in that which did necessarily require a farther intimation and doth not distrust but demand neither doth she say This cannot be nor How can this be but How shall this be So doth the Angel answer as one that knew he needed not to satisfie Curiosity but to inform Judgment and uphold Faith He doth not therefore tell her of the manner but of the Authour of this act The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Most high shall over-shadow thee It is enough to know who is the Undertaker and what he will doe O God what do we seek a clear Light where thou wilt have a Shadow No Mother knows the manner of her naturall Conception what presumption shall it be for flesh and bloud to search how the Son of God took flesh and bloud of his Creature It is for none but the Almighty to know those works which he doeth immediately concerning himself those that concern us he hath revealed Secrets to God things revealed to us The Answer was not so full but that a thousand difficulties might arise out of the particularities of so strange a Message yet after the Angel's Solution we hear of no more Objections no more Interrogations The faithfull Heart when it once understands the good pleasure of God argues no more but sweetly rests it self in a quiet expectation Behold the Servant of the Lord be it to me according to thy Word There is not a more noble proof of our Faith then to captivate all the powers of our Understanding and Will to our Creatour and without all sciscitations to goe blindfold whither he will lead us All Disputations with God after his will known arise from Infidelity Great is the Mystery of Godliness and if we will give Nature leave to cavill we cannot be Christians O God thou art faithfull thou art powerfull It is enough that thou hast said it in the humility of our obedience we resign our selves over to thee Behold the Servants of the Lord be it unto us according to thy word How fit was her Womb to conceive the Flesh of the Son of God by the power of the Spirit of God whose Breast had so soon by the power of the same Spirit conceived an assent to the will of God And now of an Handmaid of God she is advanced to the Mother of God No sooner hath she said Be it done then it is done the Holy Ghost overshadows her and forms her Saviour in her own Body This very Angel that talks with the Blessed Virgin could scarce have been able to express the Joy of her heart in the sense of this Divine Burthen Never any mortal creature had so much cause of Exultation How could she that was full of God be other then full of Joy in that God Grief grows greater by concealing Joy by expression The Holy Virgin had understood by the Angel how her Cousin Elizabeth was no less of kin to her in condition the fruitfulness of whose Age did somewhat suit the fruitfulness of her Virginity Happiness communicated doubles it self Here is no straining of courtesie The Blessed Maid whom vigour of Age had more fitted for the way hastens her journey into the Hill-country to visit that gracious Matron whom God had made a sign of her miraculous Conception Onely the meeting of Saints in Heaven can parallel the meeting of these two Cousins
less the Second It is not the presenting of Temptations that can hurt us but their entertainment Ill counsel is the fault of the Giver not of the Refuser We cannot forbid lewd eyes to look in at our windows we may shut our doors against their entrance It is no less our praise to have resisted then Satan's blame to suggest evil Yea O Blessed Saviour how glorious was it for thee how happy for us that thou wert tempted Had not Satan tempted thee how shouldst thou have overcome Without blows there can be no victory no triumph How had thy power been manifested if no adversary had tried thee The First Adam was tempted and vanquished the Second Adam to repay and repair that foil doth vanquish in being tempted Now have we not a Saviour and High Priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but such an one as was in all things tempted in like sort yet without sin How boldly therefore may we go unto the Throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace of help in time of need Yea this Duel was for us Now we see by this conflict of our Almighty Champion what manner of Adversary we have how he fights how he is resisted how overcome Now our very Temptation affords us comfort in that we see the dearer we are unto God the more obnoxious we are to this trial Neither can we be discouraged by the hainousness of those evils whereto we are moved since we see the Son of God solicited to Infidelity Covetousness Idolatry How glorious therefore was it for thee O Saviour how happy for us that thou wert tempted Where then wast thou tempted O Blessed Jesu or whither wentest thou to meet with our great Adversary I do not see thee led into the market-place or any other part of the City or thy home-stead of Nazareth but into the vast wilderness the habitation of beasts a place that carrieth in it both horrour and opportunity Why wouldst thou thus retire thy self from men But as confident Champions are wont to give advantage of ground or weapon to their Antagonist that the glory of their victory may be the greater so wouldst thou O Saviour in this conflict with our common Enemy yield him his own terms for circumstances that thine honour and his foil may be the more Solitariness is no small help to the speed of a Temptation Woe to him that is alone for if he fall there is not a second to lift him up Those that out of an affectation of Holiness seek for solitude in rocks and caves of the desarts do no other then run into the mouth of the danger of Temptation whilst they think to avoid it It was enough for thee to whose Divine power the gates of hell were weakness thus to challenge the Prince of darkness Our care must be always to eschew all occasions of spiritual danger and what we may to get us out of the reach of Temptations But O the depth of the Wisedome of God! How camest thou O Saviour to be thus tempted That Spirit whereby thou wast conceived as Man and which was one with thee and the Father as God led thee into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan Whilst thou taughtest us to pray to thy Father Lead us not into temptation thou meantest to instruct us that if the same Spirit led us not into this perilous way we goe not into it We have still the same conduct Let the path be what it will how can we miscarry in the hand of a Father Now may we say to Satan as thou didst unto Pilate Thou couldst have no power over me except it were given thee from above The Spirit led thee it did not drive thee Here was a sweet invitation no compulsion of violence So absolutely conformable was thy will to thy Deity as if both thy Natures had but one Volition In this first draught of thy bitter potion thy soul said in a real subjection Not my will but thy will be done We imitate thee O Saviour though we cannot reach to thee All thine are led by thy Spirit O teach us to forget that we have wills of our own The Spirit led thee thine invincible strength did not animate thee into this combat uncalled What do we weaklings so far presume upon our abilities or success as that we dare thrust our selves upon Temptations unbidden unwarranted Who can pity the shipwrack of those Mariners who will needs put forth and hoise sails in a tempest Forty days did our Saviour spend in the wilderness fasting and solitary all which time was worn out in Temptation however the last brunt because it was most violent is onely expressed Now could not the Adversary complain or disadvantage whilst he had the full scope both of time and place to do his worst And why did it please thee O Saviour to fast forty days and forty nights unless as Moses fasted forty days at the delivery of the Law and Elias at the restitution of the Law so thou thoughtest fit at the accomplishment of the Law and the promulgation of the Gospel to fulfill the time of both these Types of thine wherein thou intendest our wonder not our imitation not our imitation of the time though of the act Here were no faulty desires of the flesh in thee to be tamed no possibility of a freer and more easie assent of the soul to God that could be affected of thee who wast perfectly united unto God but as for us thou wouldest suffer death so for us thou wouldest suffer hunger that we might learn by fasting to prepare our selves for Temptations In fasting so long thou intendedst the manifestation of thy Power in fasting no longer the truth of thy Manhood Moses and Elias through the miraculous sustentation of God fasted so long without any question made of the truth of their bodies So long therefore thou thoughtest good to fast as by the reason of these precedents might be without prejudice of thine Humanity which if it should have pleased thee to support as thou couldst without means thy very power might have opened the mouth of cavils against the verity of thine Humane nature That thou mightest therefore well approve that there was no difference betwixt thee and us but sin thou that couldst have fasted without hunger and lived without meat wouldst both feed and fast and hunger Who can be discouraged with the scantiness of friends or bodily provisions when he sees his Saviour thus long destitute of all earthly comforts both of society and sustenance Oh the policy and malice of that old Serpent When he sees Christ bewray some infirmity of nature in being hungry then he lays sorest at him by Temptations His eye was never off from our Saviour all the time of his sequestration and now that he thinks he espies any one part to lie open he drives at it with all his might We have to doe with an Adversary no less vigilant then malicious
performance meets him one half of the way and he that believed somewhat ere he came and more when he went grew to more Faith in the way and when he came home inlarged his Faith to all the skirts of his Family A weak Faith may be true but a true Faith is growing He that boasts of a full stature in the first moment of his assent may presume but doth not believe Great men cannot want clients their example sways some their authority more they cannot go to either of the other worlds alone In vain do they pretend power over others who labour not to draw their families unto God XV. The Dumb Devil ejected THat the Prince of our Peace might approve his victories perfect wheresoever he met with the Prince of darkness he foiled him he ejected him He found him in Heaven thence did he throw him headlong and verified his Prophet I have cast thee out of mine holy mountain And if the Devils left their first habitation it was because being Devils they could not keep it Their estate indeed they might have kept and did not their habitation they would have kept and might not How art thou faln from heaven O Lucifer He found him in the Heart of man for in that closet of God did the evill Spirit after his exile from Heaven shrowd himself Sin gave him possession which he kept with a willing violence thence he casts him by his Word and Spirit He found him tyrannizing in the Bodies of some possessed men and with power commands the unclean Spirits to depart This act is for no hand but his When a strong man keeps possession none but a stronger can remove it In voluntary things the strongest may yield to the weakest Sampson to a Dalilah but in violent ever the mightiest carries it A spirituall nature must needs be in rank above a bodily neither can any power be above a Spirit but the God of Spirits No otherwise is it in the mentall possession Where ever Sin is there Satan is As on the contrary whosoever is born of God the seed of God remains in him That Evill one not onely is but rules in the sons of disobedience in vain shall we try to eject him but by the Divine power of the Redeemer For this cause the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the Devill Do we find our selves haunted with the familiar Devills of Pride Self-love Sensuall desires Unbelief None but thou O Son of the ever-living God can free our bosoms of these hellish guests O cleanse thou me from my secret sins and keep me that presumptuous sins prevail not over me O Saviour it is no Paradox to say that thou castest out more Devils now then thou didst whilst thou wert upon earth It was thy word When I am lifted up I will draw all men unto me Satan weighs down at the feet thou pullest at the head yea at the heart In every conversion which thou workest there is a dispossession Convert me O Lord and I shall be converted I know thy means are now no other then ordinary If we expect to be dispossessed by miracle it would be a miracle if ever we were dispossessed O let thy Gospell have the perfect work in me so onely shall I be delivered from the powers of darkness Nothing can be said to be dumb but what naturally speaks nothing can speak naturally but what hath the instruments of speech which because spirits want they can no otherwise speak vocally then as they take voices to themselves in taking bodies This Devill was not therefore dumb in his nature but in his effect The man was dumb by the operation of that Devill which possessed him and now the action is attributed to the spirit which was subjectively in the man It is not you that speak saith our Saviour but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you As it is in bodily diseases that they do not infect us alike some seize upon the humours others upon the spirits some assault the brain others the heart or lungs so in bodily and spirituall possessions in some the evill spirit takes away their senses in some their lims in some their inward faculties like as spiritually they affect to move us unto severall sins one to Lust another to Covetousness or Ambition another to Cruelty and their names have distinguished them according to these various effects This was a dumb Devill which yet had possessed not the tongue onely of this man but his ear nor that onely but as it seems his eyes too O subtle and tyrannous spirit that obstructs all ways to the Soul that keeps out all means of grace both from the door and windows of the Heart yea that stops up all passages whether of ingress or egress of ingress at the Eye or Ear of egress at the Mouth that there might be no capacity of redress What holy use is there of our Tongue but to praise our Maker to confess our sins to inform our brethren How rise is this dumb Devill every-where whilst he stops the mouths of Christians from these usefull and necessary duties For what end hath man those two privileges above his fellow-creatures Reason and Speech but that as by the one he may conceive of the great works of his Maker which the rest cannot so by the other he may express what he conceives to the honour of the Creatour both of them and himself And why are all other creatures said to praise God and bidden to praise him but because they doe it by the apprehension by the expression of man If the heavens declare the glory of God how doe they it but to the eyes and by the tongue of that man for whom they were made It is no small honour whereof the envious Spirit shall rob his Maker if he can close up the mouth of his onely rationall and vocall creature and turn the best of his workmanship into a dumb Idol that hath a mouth and speaks not Lord open thou my lips and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise Praise is not more necessary then complaint praise of God then complaint of our selves whether to God or men The onely amends we can make to God when we have not had the grace to avoid sin is to confess the sin we have not avoided This is the sponge that wipes out all the blots and blurs of our lives If we confess our sins he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness That cunning Man-slayer knows there is no way to purge the sick soul but upward by casting out the vicious humour wherewith it is clogged and therefore holds the lips close that the heart may not dis-burthen it self by so wholsome evacuation When I kept silence my bones consumed For day and night thy hand O Lord was heavy upon me my moisture is turned into the drought of summer O let me confess against my self my wickedness unto
Behold he was the God whom they went up to worship at the Feast yet he goes up to worship He began his life in Obedience when he came into his Mother's belly to Bethlehem at the taxation of Augustus and so he continues it He knew his due Of whom do the Kings of the earth receive tribute of their own or of strangers Then their Sons are free Yet he that would pay tribute to Caesar will also pay this tribute of Obedience to his Father He that was above the Law yields to the Law Legi satisfacere voluit etsi non sub Lege He would satisfie the Law though he were not under the Law The Spirit of God says He learned obedience in that he suffered Surely also he taught Obedience in that he did This was his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to John Baptist It becomes us to fulfill all righteousness He will not abate his Father one Ceremony It was dangerous to go up to that Jerusalem which he had left before for their malice yet now he will up again His Obedience drew him up to that bloudy Feast wherein himself was sacrificed how much more now that he might sacrifice What can we plead to have learned of Christ if not his first Lesson Obedience The same proclamation that Gedeon made to Israel he makes still to us As ye see me doe so doe ye Whatsoever therefore God injoyns us either immediately by himself or mediately by his Deputies if we will be Christians we must so observe as those that know themselves bound to tread in his steps that said In the volume of thy book it is written of me I desired to doe thy will O God Psal 40.6 I will have obedience saith God and not sacrifice But where Sacrifice is Obedience he will have Obedience in sacrificing Therefore Christ went up to the Feast The second motive was the manifestation of his Glory If we be the light of the world who are so much snuffe what is he that is the Father of lights It was not for him to be set under the bushell of Nazareth but upon the table of Jerusalem Thither and then was the confluence of all the Tribes Many a time had Christ passed by this man before when the streets were empty for there he lay many years yet heals him not till now He that sometimes modestly steals a Miracle with a Vide nè cui dixeris See thou tell no man that no man might know it at other times does wonders upon the Scaffold of the World that no man might be ignorant and bids proclaim it on the house tops It was fit the world should be thus publickly convinced and either wone by belief or lost by inexcusableness Good the more common it is the better I will praise thee saith David in Ecclesia magna in the great Congregation Glory is not got in corners No man say the envious kinsmen of Christ keeps close and would be famous No nor that would have God celebrated The best opportunities must be taken in glorifying him He that would be Crucified at the feast that his Death and Resurrection might be more famous will at the Feast doe Miracles that his Divine power might be approved openly Christ is Flos campi non horti the flour of the field and not of the garden saith Bernard God cannot abide to have his Graces smothered in us I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart saith the Psalmist Absalom when he would be insignitè improbus notoriously wicked does his villany publickly in the eyes of the Sun under no curtain but Heaven He that would doe notable service to God must doe it conspicuously Nicodemus gain'd well by Christ but Christ got nothing by him so long as like to a night-bird he never came to him but with owls and bats Then he began to be a profitable Disciple when he durst oppose the Pharisees in their condemnation of Christ though indefinitely but most when in the night of his death the light of his Faith brought him openly to take down the Sacred Corps before all the gazing multitude and to embalm it When we confess God's name with the Psalmist before Kings when Kings defenders of the Faith profess their Religion in publick and everlasting monuments to all nations to all times this is glorious to God and in God to them It is no matter how close evils be nor how publick good is This is enough for the Chronography the Topography follows I will not here stand to shew you the ignorance of the Vulgar translation in joyning probatica and piscina together against their own fair Vatican copy with other ancient nor spend time to discuss whether 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be here understood for the substantive of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is most likely to be that Sheep-gate spoken of in Ezra nor to shew how ill piscina in the Latin answers the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ours turn it a pool better then any Latin word can express it nor to shew you as I might how many publick Pools were in Jerusalem nor to discuss the use of this Pool whether it were for washing the beasts to be sacrificed or to wash the entralls of the Sacrifice whence I remember Hierom fetches the virtue of the water and in his time thought he discerned some redness as if the bloud spilt four hundred years before could still retain his first tincture in a liquid substance besides that it would be a strange swimming-pool that were brewed with bloud and this was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This conceit arises from the errour of the construction in mis-matching 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Neither will I argue whether it should be Bethsida or Bethzida or Bethsheda or Bethesda If either you or my self knew not how to be rid of time we might easily wear out as many hours in this Pool as this poor impotent man did years But it is Edification that we affect and not curiosity This Pool had five Porches Neither will I run here with S. Austin into Allegories that this Pool was the people of the Jews Aquae multae populus multus and these five Porches the Law in the five books of Moses nor stand to confute Adrichomius who out of Josephus would persuade us that these five Porches were built by Solomon and that this was stagnum Solomonis for the use of the Temple The following words shew the use of the Porches for the receit of impotent sick blind halt withered that waited for the moving of the water It should seem it was walled about to keep it from Cattel and these five vaulted entrances were made by some Benefactours for the more convenience of attendence Here was the Mercy of God seconded by the Charity of men If God will give Cure they will give Harbour Surely it is a good matter to put our hand to God's and to further good works with convenience of
to us in our first birth our new birth acquits us from him and cuts off all his claim How miserable are they that have nothing but Nature Better had it been to have been unborn then not to be born again And if this poor soul from an infant were thus miserably handled having done none actual evil how just cause have we to fear the like Judgments who by many foul offences have deserved to draw this executioner upon us O my Soul thou hast not room enough for thankfulness to that good God who hath not delivered thee up to that malignant Spirit The distressed Father sits not still neglects not means I brought him to thy Disciples Doubtless the man came first to seek for Christ himself finding him absent he makes suit to the Disciples To whom should we have recourse in all our spiritual complaints but to the agents and messengers of God The noise of the like cures had surely brought this man with much confidence to crave their succour and now how cold was he at the heart when he found that his hopes were frustrate They could not cast him out No doubt the Disciples tried their best they laid their wonted charge upon this dumb spirit but all in vain They that could come with joy and triumph to their Master and say The Devils are subject to us find now themselves matched with a stubborn and refractory spirit Their way was hitherto smooth and fair they met with no rub till now And now surely the father of the Demoniack was not more troubled at this event then themselves How could they chuse but fear lest their Master had with himself with-drawn that spiritual power which they had formerly exercised Needs must their heart fail them with their success The man complained not of their impotence it were fondly injurious to accuse them for that which they could not doe had the want been in their will they had well deserved a querulous language it was no fault to want power Onely he complains of the stubbornness and laments the invincibleness of that evil spirit I should wrong you O ye blessed Followers of Christ if I should say that as Israel when Moses was gone up into the Mount lost their belief with their guide so that ye missing your Master who was now ascended up to his Tabor were to seek for your Faith Rather the Wisedom of God saw reason to check your over-assured forwardness and both to pull down your hearts by a just humiliation in the sense of your own weakness and to raise up your hearts to new acts of dependence upon that sovereign power from which your limited virtue was derived What was more familiar to the Disciples then ejecting of Devils In this onely it is denied them Our good God sometimes finds it requisite to hold us short in those abilities whereof we make least doubt that we may feel whence we had them God will be no less glorified in what we cannot doe then in what we can doe If his Graces were alwaies at our command and ever alike they would seem naturall and soon run into contempt now we are justly held in an awfull dependence upon that gracious hand which so gives as not to cloy us and so denies as not to discourage us Who could now but expect that our Saviour should have pitied and bemoaned the condition of this sad father and miserable son and have let fall some words of comfort upon them In stead whereof I hear him chiding and complaining O faithless and perverse generation how long shall I be with you how long shall I suffer you Complaining not of that wofull father and more wofull son it was not his fashion to adde affliction to the distressed to break such bruised reeds but of those Scribes who upon the failing of the success of this suit had insulted upon the disability of the Followers of Christ and depraved his power although perhaps this impatient father seduced by their suggestion might slip into some thoughts of distrust There could not be a greater crimination then faithless and perverse faithless in not believing perverse in being obstinately set in their unbelief Doubtless these men were not free from other notorious crimes all were drowned in their Infidelity Morall uncleannesses or violences may seem more hainous to men none are so odious to God as these Intellectuall wickednesses What an happy change is here in one breath of Christ How long shall I suffer you Bring him hither to me The one is a word of anger the other of favour His just indignation doth not exceed or impeach his Goodness What a sweet mixture there is in the perfect simplicity of the Divine Nature In the midst of judgment he remembers mercy yea he acts it His Sun shines in the midst of this storm Whether he frown or whether he smile it is all to one purpose that he may win the incredulous and disobedient Whither should the rigour of all our censures tend but to edification and not to destruction We are Physicians we are not executioners we give purges to cure and not poisons to kill It is for the just Judge to say one day to reprobate Souls Depart from me in the mean time it is for us to invite all that are spiritually possessed to the participation of mercy Bring him hither to me O Saviour distance was no hindrance to thy work why should the Demoniack be brought to thee Was it that this deliverance might be the better evicted and that the beholders might see it was not for nothing that the Disciples were opposed with so refractory a spirit or was it that the Scribes might be witnesses of that strong hostility that was betwixt thee and that foul spirit and be ashamed of their blasphemous slander or was it that the father of the Demoniack might be quickened in that Faith which now through the suggestion of the Scribes begun to droop when he should hear and see Christ so chearfully to undertake and perform that whereof they had bidden him despair The possessed is brought the Devil is rebuked and ejected That stiffe spirit which stood out boldly against the commands of the Disciples cannot but stoop to the voice of the Master that power which did at first cast him out of Heaven easily dispossesses him of an house of clay The Lord rebuke thee Satan and then thou canst not but flee The Disciples who were not used to these affronts cannot but be troubled at their mis-success Master why could not we cast him out Had they been conscious of any defect in themselves they had never ask'd the question Little did they think to hear of their Unbelief Had they not had great Faith they could not have cast out any Devils had they not had some want of Faith they had cast out this It is possible for us to be defective in some Graces and not to feel it Although not so much their weakness is guilty of this unprevailing as
came and ministred unto him and now in the Garden whilst he is in an harder combat ye appear to strengthen him O the wise and marvellous dispensation of the Almighty Whom God will afflict an Angel shall relieve the Son shall suffer the Servant shall comfort him the God of Angels droopeth the Angel of God strengthens him Blessed Jesu if as Man thou wouldst be made a little lower then the Angels how can it disparage thee to be attended and cheared up by an Angel Thine Humiliation would not disdain comfort from meaner hands How free was it for thy Father to convey seasonable consolations to thine humbled Soul by whatsoever means Behold though thy Cup shall not pass yet it shall be sweetned What if thou see not for the time thy Father's face yet thou shalt feel his hand What could that Spirit have done without the God of Spirits O Father of Mercies thou maist bring thine into Agonies but thou wilt never leave them there In the midst of the sorrows of my heart thy comforts shall refresh my Soul Whatsoever be the means of my supportation I know and adore the Authour XLVI Peter and Malchus or CHRIST Apprehended WHerefore O Saviour didst thou take those three choice Disciples with thee from their fellows but that thou expectedst some comfort from their presence A seasonable word may sometimes fall from the meanest attendent and the very society of those we trust carries in it some kind of contentment Alas what broken reeds are men Whilst thou art sweating in thine Agony they are snorting securely Admonitions threats intreaties cannot keep their eyes open Thou tellest them of danger they will needs dream of ease and though twice rouzed as if they had purposed this neglect they carelesly sleep out thy sorrow and their own perill What help hast thou of such Followers In the mount of thy Transfiguration they slept and besides fell on their faces when they should behold thy glory and were not themselves for fear in the garden of thine Agony they fell upon the ground for drouziness when they should compassionate thy sorrow and lost themselves in a stupid sleepiness Doubtless even this disregard made thy prayers so much more fervent The less comfort we find on earth the more we seek above Neither soughtest thou more then thou foundest Lo thou wert heard in that which thou fearedst An Angel supplies men that Spirit was vigilant whilst thy Disciples were heavy The exchange was happy No sooner is this good Angel vanished then that domestick Devil appears Judas comes up and shews himself in the head of those miscreant troups He whose too much honour it had been to be a Follower of so Blessed a Master affects now to be the leader of this wicked rabble The Sheep's fleece is now cast off the Wolf appears in his own likeness He that would be false to his Master would be true to his Chapmen Even evil spirits keep touch with themselves The bold Traitour dares yet still mix Hypocrisy with Villany his very salutations and kisses murther O Saviour this is no news to thee All those who under a show of Godliness practise impiety do still betray thee thus Thou who hadst said One of you is a Devil didst not now say Avoid Satan but Friend wherefore art thou come As yet Judas it was not too late Had there been any the least spark of Grace yet remaining in that perfidious bosome this word had fetch'd thee upon thy knees All this Sunshine cannot thaw an obdurate heart The sign is given Jesus is taken Wretched Traitour why wouldst thou for this purpose be thus attended and ye foolish Priests and Elders why sent you such a band and so armed for this apprehension One messenger had been enough for a voluntary prisoner Had my Saviour been unwilling to be taken all your forces with all the Legions of Hell to help them had been too little since he was willing to be attached two were too many When he did but say I am he that easy 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 ear 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 betray'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 darkness 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 amazedness as yet conceived not the purposed issue of this seizure and astonishedly waited for the success 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 less 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