unthankfull silence to smother the works of God in an affected secrecy To make God a loser by his bounty to us were a shamefull injustice We our selves abide not those sponges that suck up good turns unknown O God we are not worthy of our spiritual eye-sight if we do not publish thy mercies on the house top and praise thee in the great congregation Man is naturally inquisitive we search studiously into the secret works of Nature we pry into the reasons of the witty inventions of Art but if there be any thing that transcends Art and Nature the more high and abstruse it is the more busie we are to seek into it This thirst after hidden yea forbidden Knowledge did once cost us dear but where it is good and lawfull to know inquiry is commendable as here in these Jews How were thine eyes opened The first improvement of humane Reason is inquisition the next is information and resolution and if the meanest events pass us not without a question how much less those that carry in them wonder and advantage He that was so ready to profess himself the subject of the Cure is no niggard of proclaiming the Authour of it A man that is called Jesus made clay and anointed mine eyes and sent me to Siloam to wash and now I see The blind man knew no more then he said and he said what he apprehended A man He heard Jesus speak he felt his hand as yet he could look no farther upon his next meeting he saw God in this man In matter of Knowledge we must be content to creep ere we can goe As that other recovered blind man saw first men walk like trees after like men so no marvell if this man saw first this God onely as man after this man as God also Onwards he thinks him a wonderfull man a mighty Prophet In vain shall we either expect a sudden perfection in the understanding of Divine matters or censure those that want it How did this man know what Jesus did He was then stone-blind what distinction could he yet make of persons of actions True but yet the blind man never wanted the assistence of others eyes their relation hath assur'd him of the manner of his Cure besides the contribution of his other Senses his Ear might perceive the spittle to fall and hear the injoyned command his Feeling perceived the cold and moist clay upon his lips All these conjoyned gave sufficient warrant thus to believe thus to report Our ear is our best guide to a full apprehension of the works of Christ The works of God the Father his Creation and Government are best known by the Eye The works of God the Son his Redemption and Mediation are best known by the Ear. O Saviour we cannot personally see what thou hast done here What are the monuments of thine Apostles and Evangelists but the relations of the blind man's guide what and how thou hast wrought for us On these we strongly rely these we do no less confidently believe then if our very eyes had been witnesses of what thou didst and sufferedst upon earth There were no place for Faith if the Ear were not worthy of as much credit as the Eye How could the neighbours doe less then ask where he was that had done so strange a Cure I doubt yet with what mind I fear not out of favour Had they been but indifferent they could not but have been full of silent wonder and inclined to believe in so Omnipotent an Agent Now as prejudiced to Christ and partiall to the Pharisees they bring the late-blind man before those professed enemies unto Christ It is the preposterous Religion of the Vulgar sort to claw and adore those which have tyrannically usurped upon their Souls though with neglect yea with contempt of God in his word in his works Even unjust authority will never want soothing up in whatsoever courses though with disgrace and opposition to the Truth Base minds where they find possession never look after right Our Saviour had pick'd out the Sabbath for this Cure It is hard to find out any time wherein Charity is unseasonable As Mercy is an excellent Grace so the works of it are fittest for the best day We are all born blind the Font is our Siloam no day can come amiss but yet God's day is the properest for our washing and recovery This alone is quarrell enough to these scrupulous wranglers that an act of Mercy was done on that day wherein their envy was but seasonable I do not see the man beg any more when he once had his eyes no Burger in Jerusalem was richer then he I hear him stoutly defending that gracious authour of his Cure against the cavills of the malicious Pharisees I see him as a resolute Confessour suffering Excommunication for the name of Christ and maintaining the innocence and honour of so Blessed a Benefactour I hear him reade a Divinity-Lecture to them that sate in Moses his chair and convincing them of blindness who punish'd him for seeing How can I but envy thee O happy man who of a Patient provest an Advocate for thy Saviour whose gain of bodily sight made way for thy Spirituall eyes who hast lost a Synagogue and hast found Heaven who being abandoned of Sinners art received of the Lord of Glory XXXVI The stubborn Devil ejected HOW different how contrary are our conditions here upon earth Whilst our Saviour is transfigured on the Mount his Disciples are perplexed in the valley Three of his choice Followers were with him above ravished with the miraculous proofs of his Godhead nine other were troubled with the business of a stubborn Devil below Much people was met to attend Christ and there they will stay till he come down from Tabor Their zeal and devotion brought them thither their patient perseverance held them there We are not worthy the name of his clients if we cannot painfully seek him and submissly wait his leisure He that was now awhile retired into the Mount to confer with his Father and to receive the attendence of Moses and Elias returns into the valley to the multitude He was singled out awhile for prayer and contemplation now he was joyned with the multitude for their miraculous cure and Heavenly instruction We that are his spirituall agents must be either preparing in the mount or exercising in the valley one while in the mount of Meditation in the valley of Action another alone to study in the assembly to preach here is much variety but all is work Moses when he came down from the hill heard Musick in the valley Christ when he came down from the hill heard discord The Scribes it seems were setting hard upon the Disciples they saw Christ absent nine of his train left in the valley those they fly upon As the Devil so his Imps watch close for all advantages No subtle enemy but will be sure to attempt that part where is likelihood of least defence most
Contemplations UPON THE REMARKABLE PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF THE HOLY JESUS By JOSEPH HALL late Lord Bishop of EXCESTER LONDON Printed by E. Flesher and are to be sold by Jacob Tonson at the Judge's Head in Chancery Lane near Fleet-street 1679. THE CONTENTS THE Angel and Zachary Pag. 1 The Annunciation of CHRIST Pag. 11 The Birth of CHRIST Pag. 19 The Sages and the Star Pag. 25 The Purification Pag. 32 Herod and the Infants Pag. 38 CHRIST among the Doctours Pag. 46 CHRIST's Baptism Pag. 54 CHRIST Tempted Pag. 61 Simon called Pag. 76 The Marriage in Cana. Pag. 82 The good Centurion Pag. 89 The Widow's Son raised Pag. 97 The Ruler's Son cured Pag. 102 The Dumb Devil ejected Pag. 107 Matthew called Pag. 117 CHRIST among the Gergesens or Legion and the Gadarene Herd Pag. 123 The faithfull Canaanite Pag. 145 The Deaf and Dumb man cured Pag. 158 Zacchaeus Pag. 165 John Baptist beheaded Pag. 184 The five Loaves and two Fishes Pag. 202 The Walk upon the Waters Pag. 216 The Bloudy issue healed Pag. 231 Jairus and his Daughter Pag. 243 The Motion of the two fiery Disciples repelled Pag. 248 The Ten Lepers Pag. 256 The Pool of Bethesda Pag. 267 The Transfiguration of CHRIST Pag. 280 291 The Prosecution of the Transfiguration Pag. 305 The Woman taken in Adultery Pag. 309 The Thankfull Penitent Pag. 321 Martha and Mary Pag. 336 The Beggar that was born blind cured Pag. 344 The stubborn Devil ejected Pag. 353 The Widow's Mites Pag. 361 The Ambition of the two Sons of Zebedee Pag. 364 The Tribute-money pay'd Pag. 373 Lazarus Dead Pag. 377 Lazarus Raised Pag. 388 CHRIST's Procession to the Temple Pag. 403 The Fig-tree cursed Pag. 413 CHRIST Betrayed Pag. 417 The Agony Pag. 426 Peter and Malchus or CHRIST Apprehended Pag. 432 CHRIST before Caiaphas Pag. 438 CHRIST before Pilate Pag. 444 The Crucifixion Pag. 457 The Resurrection Pag. 476 The Ascension Pag. 500 Contemplations Upon the NEW TESTAMENT I. The Angel and Zacharie WHen things are at worst then God begins a Change The state of the Jewish Church was extremely corrupted immediately before the news of the Gospell yet as bad as it was not onely the Priesthood but the Courses of attendence continued even from David's time till Christ's It is a desperately-depraved condition of a Church where no good Orders are left Judaea passed many Troubles many Alterations yet this orderly Combination endured about eleven hundred years A settled Good will not easily be defeated but in the change of persons will remain unchanged and if it be forced to give way leaves memorable footsteps behind it If David foresaw the perpetuation of this holy Ordinance how much did he rejoyce in the knowledge of it Who would not be glad to doe good on condition that it may so long out-live him The successive Turns of the Legall ministration held on in a Line never interrupted Even in a forlorn and miserable Church there may be a personall Succession How little were the Jews better for this when they had lost the Urim and Thummim Sincerity of Doctrine and Manners This stayed with them even whilst they and their Sons crucified Christ What is more ordinary then wicked Sons of holy Parents It is the Succession of Truth and Holiness that makes or institutes a Church whatever becomes of the Persons Never times were so barren as not to yield some good The greatest Dearth affords some few good Ears to the Gleaners Christ would not have come into the World but he would have some faithfull to entertain him He that had the disposing of all Times and Men would cast some Holy ones into his own Times There had been no equality that all should either over-run or follow him and none attend him Zachary and Elizabeth are just both of Aaron's Bloud and John Baptist of theirs Whence should an holy Seed spring if not of the Loins of Levi It is not in the power of Parents to traduce Holiness to their Children It is the blessing of God that feoffs them in the Vertues of their Parents as they feoffe them in their Sins There is no certainty but there is likelihood of an holy Generation when the Parents are such Elizabeth was just as well as Zachary that the Fore-runner of a Saviour might be holy on both sides If the Stock and the Graffe be not both good there is much danger of the Fruit. It is an happy Match when the Husband and the Wife are one not onely in themselves but in God not more in flesh then in the spirit Grace makes no difference of Sexes rather the weaker carries away the more honour because it hath had less helps It is easie to observe that the New Testament affordeth more store of good Women then the Old Elizabeth led the ring of this mercy whose Barrenness ended in a miraculous Fruit both of her body and of her time This religious pair made no less progress in Vertue then in Age and yet their Vertue could not make their best Age fruitfull Elizabeth was barren A just soul and a barren womb may well agree together Amongst the Jews Barrenness was not a defect onely but a reproach yet while this good woman was fruitfull of holy Obedience she was barren of Children As John who was miraculously conceived by man was a fit Fore-runner of him that was conceived by the Holy Ghost so a barren Matron was meet to make way for a Virgin None but a son of Aaron might offer Incense to God in the Temple and not every son of Aaron and not any one at all seasons God is a God of Order and hates Confusion no less then Irreligion Albeit he hath not so streightned himself under the Gospell as to tie his service to Persons or Places yet his choice is now no less curious because it is more large He allows none but the authorized he authorizeth none but the worthy The Incense doth ever smell of the hand that offers it I doubt not but that Perfume was sweeter which ascended up from the hand of a just Zachary The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to God There were Courses of ministration in the Legall services God never purposed to burthen any of his creatures with Devotion How vain is the ambition of any soul that would load it self with the universall charge of all men How thankless is their labour that do wilfully over-spend themselves in their ordinary vocations As Zachary had a Course in God's House so he carefully observed it The favour of these respites doubled his diligence The more high and sacred our Calling is the more dangerous is Neglect It is our honour that we may be allowed to wait upon the God of heaven in these immediate services Woe be to us if we slacken those Duties wherein God honours us more then we can honour him Many sons of Aaron yea of the same Family served at once in the Temple according to the variety of imployments To
who will be sure to watch all opportunities of our mischief and where he sees any advantage of weakness will not neglect it How should we stand upon our guard for prevention both that we may not give him occasions of our hurt nor take hurt by those we have given When our Saviour was hungry Satan tempts him in matter of Food not then of Wealth or Glory He well knows both what baits to fish withall and when and how to lay them How safe and happy shall we be if we shall bend our greatest care where we discern the most danger In every Temptation there is an appearance of good whether of the body mind or estate The first is the lust of the flesh in any carnal desire the second the pride of heart and life the third the lust of the eyes To all these the First Adam is tempted and in all miscarried the Second Adam is tempted to them all and overcometh The first man was tempted to carnal appetite by the forbidden fruit to pride by the suggestion of being as God to covetousness in the ambitious desire of knowing good and evil Satan having found all the motions so successful with the First Adam in his innocent estate will now tread the same steps in his Temptations of the Second The stones must be made bread there is the motion to a carnal appetite The guard and attendence of Angels must be presumed on there is a motion to pride The Kingdomes of the earth and the glory of them must be offered there to covetousness and ambition Satan could not but have heard God say This is my wel-beloved Son he had heard the Message and the Caroll of the Angels he saw the Star and the Journey and Offerings of the Sages he could not but take notice of the gratulations of Zachary Simeon Anna he well knew the Predictions of the Prophets yet now that he saw Christ fainting with hunger as not comprehending how infirmities could consist with a Godhead he can say If thou be the Son of God Had not Satan known that the Son of God was to come into the World he had never said If thou be the Son of God His very supposition convinces him The ground of his temptation answers it self If therefore Christ seemed to be a meer Man because after forty days he was hungry why was he not confessed more then a Man in that for forty days he hungred not The motive of the temptation is worse then the motion If thou be the Son of God Satan could not chuse another suggestion of so great importance All the work of our Redemption of our Salvation depends upon this one Truth Christ is the Son of God How should he else have ransomed the World how should he have done how should he have suffered that which was satisfactory to his Father's wrath How should his actions or passion have been valuable to the sins of all the World What marvell is it if we that are sons by Adoption be assaulted with the doubts of our interest in God when the naturall Son the Son of his Essence is thus tempted Since all our comfort consists in this point here must needs be laid the chief battery and here must be placed our strongest defence To turn Stones into Bread had been no more faulty in it self then to turn Water into Wine But to doe this in a distrust of his Father's Providence to abuse his power and liberty in doing it to work a miracle of Satan's choice had been disagreeable to the Son of God There is nothing more ordinary with our spirituall Enemy then by occasion of want to move us to unwarrantable courses Thou art poor steal Thou canst not rise by honest means use indirect How easie had it been for our Saviour to have confounded Satan by the power of his Godhead But he rather chuses to vanquish him by the Sword of the Spirit that he might teach us how to resist and overcome the powers of darkness If he had subdued Satan by the Almighty power of the Deity we might have had what to wonder at not what to imitate now he useth that weapon which may be familiar unto us that he may teach our weakness how to be victorious Nothing in heaven or earth can beat the forces of Hell but the Word of God How carefully should we furnish our selves with this powerfull munition how should our hearts and mouths be full of it Teach me 0 Lord the way of thy Statutes O take not from me the words of Truth Let them be my Songs in the house of my pilgrimage so shall I make answer to my Blasphemers What needed Christ to have answered Satan at all if it had not been to teach us that Temptations must not have their way but must be answered by resistence and resisted by the Word I do not hear our Saviour averre himself to be a God against the blasphemous insinuation of Satan neither do I see him working this miraculous Conversion to prove himself the Son of God but most wisely he takes away the ground of the Temptation Satan had taken it for granted that man cannot be sustained without bread and therefore infers the necessity of making bread of stones Our Saviour shews him from an infallible Word that he had mislayed his suggestion That man lives not by usual food onely but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God He can either sustain without bread as he did Moses and Elias or with a miraculous bread as the Israelites with Manna or send ordinary means miraculously as food to his Prophet by the Ravens or miraculously multiply ordinary means as the Meal and Oil to the Sareptan Widow All things are sustained by his Almighty Word Indeed we live by food but not by any virtue that is without God without the concurrence of whose Providence bread would rather choak then nourish us Let him withdraw his hand from his creatures in their greatest abundance we perish Why do we therefore bend our eyes on the means and not look up to the hand that gives the blessing What so necessary dependence hath the blessing upon the creature if our Prayers hold them not together As we may not neglect the means so we may not neglect the procurement of a blessing upon the means nor be unthankfull to the hand that hath given the blessing In the first assault Satan moves Christ to doubt of his Father's Providence and to use unlawfull means to help himself in the next he moves him to presume upon his Father's protection and the service of his blessed Angels He grounds the first upon a conceit of want the next of abundance If he be in extremes it is all to one end to mislead unto evill If we cannot be driven down to Despair he labours to lift us up to Presumption It is not one foil that can put this bold Spirit out of countenance Temptations like waves break one in the neck of another
thee that thou maist forgive the punishment of my sin We have a Tongue for God when we praise him for our selves when we pray and confess for our brethren when we speak the truth for their information which if we hold back in unrighteousness we yield unto that dumb Devil Where do we not see that accursed Spirit He is on the Bench when the mute or partial Judge speaks not for truth and innocence He is in the Pulpit when the Prophets of God smother or halve or adulterate the message of their Master He is at the Bar when irreligious Jurours dare lend an oath to fear to hope to gain He is in the Market when godless Chapmen for their peny sell the truth and their soul He is in the common conversation of men when the tongue belies the heart flatters the guilty balketh reproofs even in the foulest crimes O Thou who onely art stronger then that strong one cast him out of the hearts and mouths of men It is time for thee Lord to work for they have destroyed thy Law That it might well appear this impediment was not natural so soon as the man is freed from the spirit his tongue is free to his speech The effects of spirits as they are wrought so they cease at once If the Son of God do but remove our spiritual possession we shall presently break forth into the praise of God into the confession of our vileness into the profession of truth But what strange variety do I see in the spectatours of his Miracle some wondering others censuring a third sort tempting a fourth applauding There was never man or action but was subject to variety of constructions What man could be so holy as he that was God what act could be more worthy then the dispossession of an evil spirit Yet this man this act passeth these differences of interpretation What can we doe to undergoe but one opinion If we give alms and fast some will magnifie our charity and devotion others will tax our hypocrisie if we give not some will condemn our hard-heartedness others will allow our care of justice If we preach plainly to some it will savour of a careless slubbering to others of a mortified sincerity elaborately some will tax our affectation others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God What marvel is it if it be thus with our imperfection when it fared not otherwise with him that was purity and righteousness it self The austere Fore-runner of Christ came neither eating nor drinking they say He hath a Devil The Son of man came eating and drinking they say This man is a glutton a friend of Publicans and sinners And here one of his holy acts carries away at once wonder censure doubt celebration There is no way safe for a man but to square his actions by the right rule of justice of charity and then let the world have leave to spend their glosses at pleasure It was an heroical resolution of the chosen Vessel I pass very little to be judged of you or of man's day I marvell not if the people marvelled for here were four wonders in one the blind saw the deaf heard the dumb spake the Demoniack is delivered Wonder was due to so rare and powerfull a work and if not this nothing We can cast away admiration upon the poor devices or activities of men how much more upon the extraordinary works of Omnipotency Whoso knows the frame of Heaven and Earth shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of frail humanity but shall with no less ravishment of soul acknowledge the miraculous works of the same Almighty hand Neither is the spiritual ejection worthy of any meaner entertainment Rarity and Difficulty are wont to cause wonder There are many things which have wonder in their worth and lose it in their frequency there are some which have it in their strangeness and lose it in their facility Both meet in this To see men haunted yea possessed with a dumb Devil is so frequent that it is a just wonder to find a man free but to find the dumb spirit cast out of a man and to hear him praising God confessing his sins teaching others the sweet experiments of mercy deserves just admiration If the Cynick sought in the market for a Man amongst men well may we seek amongst men for a Convert Neither is the difficulty less then the rareness The strong man hath the possession all passages are block'd up all helps barred by the treachery of our nature If any soul be rescued from these spiritual wickednesses it is the praise of him that doeth wonders alone But whom do I see wondering The multitude The unlearned beholders follow that act with wonder which the learned Scribes entertain with obloquy God hath revealed those things to babes which he hath hid from the wise and prudent With what scorn did those great Rabbins speak of these sons of the earth This people that knows not the Law is accursed Yet the mercy of God makes an advantage of their simplicity in that they are therefore less subject to cavillation and incredulity As contrarily his justice causes the proud knowledge of others to lie as a block in their way to the ready assent unto the Divine power of the Messias Let the pride of glorious adversaries disdain the poverty of the clients of the Gospel it shall not repent us to go to Heaven with the vulgar whilst their great ones go in state to Perdition The multitude wondered Who censured but Scribes great Doctours of the Law of the divinity of the Jews what Scribes but those of Jerusalem the most eminent Academy of Judaea These were the men who out of their deep reputed judgment cast these foul aspersions upon Christ Great wits oft-times mis-lead both the owners and followers How many shall once wish they had been born dullards yea idiots when they shall find their wit to have barred them out of Heaven Where is the Scribe where is the disputer of this world Hath not God made the wisedome of the world foolishness Say the world what it will a dram of Holiness is worth a pound of Wit Let others censure with the Scribes let me wonder with the multitude What could malice say worse He casteth out Devils through Beelzebub the Prince of Devils The Jews well knew that the Gods of the heathen were no other then Devils amongst whom for that the Lord of Flies so called whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices or for his aid implored against the infestation of those swarms was held the chief therefore they style him The Prince of Devils There is a subordination of Spirits some higher in degree some inferiour to others Our Saviour himself tells us of the Devil and his Angels Messengers are inferiour to those that send them The seven Devils that entered into the swept and garnished house were worse then the former Neither can
and gives glory where she would have relief Who now can expect other then a fair and yielding answer to so humble so faithfull so patient a suppliant What can speed well if a prayer of faith from the knees of humility succeed not And yet behold the farther she goes the worse she fares her discouragement is doubled with her suit It is not good to take the childrens bread and to cast it to dogs First his silence implied a contempt then his answer defended his silence now his speech expresses and defends his contempt Lo he hath turned her from a woman to a dog and as it were spurns her from his feet with an harsh repulse What shall we say is the Lamb of God turned Lion doth that clear fountain of mercy run bloud O Saviour did ever so hard a word fall from those mild lips Thou calledst Herod Fox most worthily he was crafty and wicked the Scribes and Pharisees a generation of vipers they were venomous and cruel Judas a Devil he was both covetous and treacherous But here was a Woman in distress and distress challenges mercy a good woman a faithfull suppliant a Canaanitish disciple a Christian Canaanite yet rated and whipt out for a dog by thee who wert all goodness and mercy How different are thy ways from ours Even thy severity argues favour The trial had not been so sharp if thou hadst not found the faith so strong if thou hadst not meant the issue so happy Thou hadst not driven her away as a Dog if thou hadst not intended to admit her for a Saint and to advance her so much for a pattern of Faith as thou depressedst her for a spectacle of contempt The time was when the Jews were Children and the Gentiles Dogs now the case is happily altered the Jews are the Dogs so their dear and Divine countryman calls the Concision we Gentiles are the Children What certainty is there in an external profession that gives us onely to seem not to be at least the being that it gives is doubtfull and temporary we may be Children to day and Dogs to morrow The true assurance of our condition is in the Decree and Covenant of God on his part in our Faith and Obedience on ours How they of Children became Dogs it is not hard to say their presumption their unbelief transformed them and to perfect their brutishness they set their fangs upon the Lord of life How we of Dogs become Children I know no reason but Oh the depth That which at the first singled them out from the nations of the world hath at last singled us out from the world and them It is not in him that willeth nor in him that runneth but in God that hath mercy Lord how should we bless thy goodness that we of Dogs are Children how should we fear thy justice since they of Children are Dogs O let not us be high-minded but tremble If they were cut off who crucified thee in thine humbled estate what may we expect who crucifie thee daily in thy glory Now what ordinary patience would not have been overstrained with so contemptuous a repulse How few but would have faln into intemperate passions into passionate expostulations Art thou the Prophet of God that so disdainfully entertainest poor suppliants Is this the comfort that thou dealest to the distressed Is this the fruit of my humble adoration of my faithfull profession Did I snarl or bark at thee when I called thee the Son of David Did I fly upon thee otherwise then with my prayers and tears And if this term were fit for my vileness yet doth it become thy lips Is it not sorrow enough to me that I am afflicted with my Daughter's misery but that thou of whom I hoped for relief must adde to mine affliction in an unkind reproach But here is none of all this Contrarily her humility grants all her patience overcomes all and she meekly answers Truth Lord yet the dogs eat of the crums which fall from their master's table The reply is not more witty then faithfull O Lord thou art Truth it self thy words can be no other then truth thou hast call'd me a Dog and a Dog I am give me therefore the favour and privilege of a Dog that I may gather up some crums of mercy from under that table whereat thy Children sit This blessing though great to me yet to the infiniteness of thy power and mercy is but as a crum to a feast I presume not to press to the board but to creep under it deny me not those small offalls which else would be swept away in the dust After this stripe give me but a crum and I shall fawn upon thee and depart satisfied O woman say I great is thine humility great is thy patience but O woman saith my Saviour great is thy faith He sees the root we the stock Nothing but Faith could thus temper the heart thus strengthen the soul thus charm the tongue O precious Faith O acceptable Perseverance It is no marvell if that chiding end in favour Be it to thee even as thou wilt Never did such grace go away uncrowned The beneficence had been streight if thou hadst not carried away more then thou suedst for Lo thou that camest a Dog goest away a Child thou that wouldst but creep under the Childrens feet art set at their elbow thou that wouldst have taken up with a crum art feasted with full dishes The way to speed well at God's hand is to be humbled in his eyes and in our own It is quite otherwise with God and with men With men we are so accounted of as we account of our selves he shall be sure to be vile in the sight of others which is vile in his own With God nothing is got by vain ostentation nothing is lost by abasement O God when we look down to our own weakness and cast up our eyes to thine infiniteness thine omnipotence what poor things we are but when we look down upon our sins and wickedness how shall we express our shame None of all thy creatures except Devils are capable of so foul a quality As we have thus made our selves worse then beasts so let us in a sincere humbleness of mind acknowledge it to thee who canst pity forgive redress it So setting our selves down at the lower end of the table of thy creatures thou the great Master of the Feast maist be pleased to advance us to the height of glory XIX The Deaf and Dumb man cured OUR Saviour's entrance into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon was not without a Miracle neither was his regress as the Sun neither rises nor sets without light In his entrance he delivers the Daughter of the faithfull Syrophoenician in his egress he cures the Deaf and Dumb. He can no more want work then that work can want success Whether the Patient were naturally deaf and perfectly dumb or imperfectly dumb and accidentally deaf I labour not Sure I am that
and decrepit age of the world into which we are fallen How many are there that think there is no wisedom 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 Murther They that kill you shall think they doe God service sometimes Phrensie sometimes rude Indiscretion Wholsome and blessed is that Zeal that is well grounded and well governed grounded upon the word of Truth not upon unstable fancies governed by Wisedom and Charity Wisedom to avoid rashness and excess 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 privileged from letting fall unjustifiable actions Besides that they may have had perhaps peculiar warrants signed from Heaven whether by instinct or special 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 find fault with the errours of zeal even where have appeared sensible weaknesses If Moses in a sacred rage and indignation brake the Tables written with God's own hand I find him not checked Here our meek Saviour turns back and frowns upon his furious suitours and takes them up roundly Ye know not of what spirit ye are The faults of uncharitableness 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 mind 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 bloud Not an Eagle but a Dove was the shape wherein he chose to appear Neither wouldst thou O God be in the whirlwind 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 God's Saints in singular actions must see they go 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 his O Saviour when we look into those sacred Acts and monuments of thine we find many a life which thou preservedst from perishing some that had perished by thee recalled never any by thee destroyed Onely one poor fig-tree as the reall Emblem of thy severity to the unfruitfull was blasted and withered by thy curse But to man how ever favourable and indulgent wert thou So repelled as thou wert so reviled so persecuted laid for sold betrayed apprehended arraigned condemned crucified yet what one man didst thou strike dead for these hainous indignities Yea when one of thine enemies lost but an ear in that ill quarrel thou gavest that ear to him who came to take life from thee I find some whom thou didst scourge and correct as the sacrilegious money-changers none whom thou killedst Not that thou either lovest not or requirest not the duly severe execution of justice Whose sword is it that Princes bear but thine Offenders must smart and bleed This is a just sequel but not the intention of thy coming thy will not thy drift Good Princes make wholsome Laws for the well-ordering of their people there is no authority without due coercion The violation of these good Laws is followed with death whose end was preservation life order and this not so much for revenge of an offence past as for prevention of future mischief How can we then enough love and praise thy mercy O thou preserver of men How should we imitate thy saving and beneficent disposition towards mankind as knowing the more we can help to save the nearer we come to thee that camest to save all and the more destructive we are the more we resemble him who is Abaddon a murtherer from the beginning XXVII The Ten Lepers THE Samaritans were tainted not with Schism but Heresie but Paganism our Saviour yet balks them not but makes use of the way as it lies and bestows upon them the courtesie of some Miracles Some kind of commerce is lawfull even with those without Terms of intireness and leagues of inward amity are here unfit unwarrantable dangerous but civil respects and wise uses of them for our convenience or necessity need not must not be forborn Ten Lepers are here met those that
Martha might have sate still as well as she She might have stirr'd about as well as Martha Mary'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 marvel 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 Authour 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 XXXV The Beggar that was born blind cured THE man was born blind This Cure requires not Art but Power a Power no less then infinite and Divine Nature presupposeth a matter though formless 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 onely a God that can create Such are we O God to all spiritual things we want not sight but eyes it must be thou onely that canst make us capable of illumination The blind 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 beggary is odious that which is of God's making justly challengeth relief Where should this blind man sit begging but near the Temple At one gate sits a Cripple a Blind 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 go 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 pass by that his eye was fixed The blind man could not see him he sees the blind 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 heartless 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 blind Beggar at the gate of the Temple The Disciples see the blind 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 blind I like well that whatsoever doubt troubled them they straight vent it into the ear of their Master O Saviour whilst thou art in Heaven thy school is upon earth Wherefore serve thy Priests lips but to preserve knowledge What use is there of the tongue of the learned but to speak a word in season Thou teachest us still and still we doubt and ask and learn In one short question I find two Truths and two Falshoods the Truths implied the Falshoods expressed It is true that commonly man's suffering is for sin that we may justly and do often suffer even for the sins of our Parents It is false that there is no other reason of our suffering but sin that a man could sin actually before he was or was before his being or could before-hand suffer for his after-sins In all likelihood that absurd conceit of the Transmigration of Souls possessed the very Disciples How easily and how far may the best be miscarried with a common errour We are not thankfull for our own illumination if we do not look with charity and pity upon the gross mis-opinions of our brethren Our Saviour sees and yet will wink at so foul a misprision of his Disciples I hear neither chiding nor conviction He that could have inlightned their minds as he did the world at once will doe it by due leisure and onely contents himself here with a mild solution Neither this man nor his Parents We learn nothing of thee O Saviour if not meekness What a sweet temper should be in our carriage towards the weaknesses of others judgments how should we instruct them without bitterness and without violence of Passion expect the meet seasons of their better information The tender Mother or Nurse doth not rate her little one for that he goes not well but gives him her hand that he may goe better It is the spirit of lenity that must restore and confirm the lapsed The answer is direct and punctuall neither the sin of the man nor of his Parents bereaved him of his eyes there was an higher cause of this privation the glory that God meant to win unto himself by redressing it The Parents had sinned in themselves the man had sinned in his first Parents it is not the guilt of either that is guilty of this blindness All God's afflictive acts are not punishments some are for the benefit of the creature whether for probation or prevention or reformation all are for the praise whether of his Divine Power or Justice or Mercy It was fit so great a work should be usher'd in with a preface A sudden and abrupt appearance would not have beseemed so glorious a demonstration of Omnipotence The way is made our Saviour addresses himself to the Miracle a Miracle not more in the thing done then in the form of doing it The matter used was Clay Could there be a meaner could there be ought more unfit O Saviour how oft hadst thou cured blindnesses by thy word alone how oft by thy touch How easily couldst thou have done so here Was
so as it should never be restored thou took'st it up but for a while but that little touch of that Sacred Corps of thine made it too good for the owner O happy Joseph that hadst the honour to be Landlord of the Lord of Life how well is thy house-room repay'd with a mansion not made with hands eternall in the heavens Thy Garden and thy Tomb were hard by Calvary where thou couldst not fail of many monitions of thy frailty How oft hadst thou seasoned that new Tomb with sad and savoury meditations and hadst oft said within thy self Here I shall once lie down to my last rest and wait for my Resurrection Little didst thou then think to have been disappointed by so Blessed a Guest or that thy grave should be again so soon empty and in that emptiness uncapable of any mortall in-dweller How gladly dost thou now resign thy grave to him in whom thou livest and who liveth for ever whose Soul is in Paradise whose Godhead every-where Hadst thou not been rich before this gift had enriched thee alone and more ennobled thee then all thine earthly Honour Now great Princes envy thy bounty and have thought themselves happy to kiss the stones of that rock which thou thus hewedst thus bestowedst Thus purely wrapped and sweetly embalmed lies the precious Body of our Saviour in Joseph's new Vault Are ye now also at rest O ye Jewish Rulers Is your malice dead and buried with him Hath Pilate enough served your envy and revenge Surely it is but a common hostility that can die yours surviveth death and puts you upon a farther project The chief Priests and Pharisees came together unto Pilate saying Sir we remember that this Deceiver said whilst he was yet alive After three days I will rise again Command therefore that the Sepulcher be made sure till the third day lest his Disciples come by night and steal him away and say to the people he is risen How full of terrours and inevitable perplexities is guiltiness These men were not more troubled with envy at Christ alive then now with fear of his Resurrection And what can now secure them Pilate had helpt to kill him but who shall keep him from rising Wicked and foolish Jews how fain would ye fight against God and your own hearts how gladly would ye deceive your selves in believing him to be a Deceiver whom your consciences knew to be no less true then powerfull Lazarus was still in your eye That man was no phantasm his death his reviving was undeniable the so-fresh resuscitation of that dead body after four days dissolution was a manifest conviction of Omnipotence How do ye vainly wish that he could deceive you in the fore-reporting of his own Resurrection Without a Divine power he could have raised neither Lazarus nor himself with and by it he could as well raise himself as Lazarus What need we other witnesses then your own mouths That which he would doe ye confess he foretold that the truth of his word might answer the power of this deed and both of them might argue him the God of Truth and Power and your selves enemies to both And now what must be done The Sepulcher must be secured and you with it An huge stone a strong guard must doe the deed and that stone must be sealed that guard of your own designing Methinks I hear the Souldiers and busie Officers when they were rolling that other weighty Stone for such we probably conceive to the mouth of the vault with much toil and sweat and breathlesness how they bragg'd of the sureness of the place and unremovableness of that load and when that so choice a Watch was set how they boasted of their valour and vigilance and said they would make him safe from either rising or stealing Oh the madness of impotent men that think by either wile or force to frustrate the will and designs of the Almighty How justly doth that wise and powerfull Arbiter of the world laugh them to scorn in Heaven and befool them in their own vain devices O Saviour how much evidence had thy Resurrection wanted if these enemies had not been thus maliciously provident how irrefragable is thy Rising made by these bootless endeavours of their prevention All this while the devout Maries keep close and silently spend their Sabbath in a mixture of grief and hope How did they wear out those sad hours in bemoaning themselves each to other in mutuall relations of the patient sufferings of the happy expiration of their Saviour of the wonderfull events both in the Heavens and earth that accompanied his Crucifixion of his frequent and clear Predictions of his Resurrection And now they have gladly agreed so soon as the time will give them leave in the dawning of the Sunday-morning to visit that dear Sepulcher Neither will they goe empty-handed She that had bestowed that costly Alabaster-box of Ointment upon their Saviour alive hath prepared no less precious Odours for him dead Love is restless and fearless In the dark of night these good Women goe to buy their spices and ere the day-break are gone out of their houses towards the Tomb of Christ to bestow them This Sex is commonly fearfull it was much for them to walk alone in that unsafe season yet as despising all fears and dangers they thus spend the night after their Sabbath Might they have been allowed to buy their Perfumes on the Sabbath or to have visited that holy Tomb sooner can we think they would have staid so long can we suppose they would have cared more for the Sabbath then for the Lord of the Sabbath who now kept his Sabbath in the Grave Sooner they might not come later they would not to present their last homage to their dead Saviour Had these holy women known their Jesus to be alive how had they hasted who made such speed to doe their last offices to his sacred Corps For us we know that our Redeemer liveth we know where he is O Saviour how cold and heartless is our love to thee if we do not haste to find thee in thy Word and Sacraments if our Souls do not fly up to thee in all holy Affections into thy Heaven Of all the Women Mary Magdalen is first named and in some Evangelists alone She is noted above her fellows None of them were so much obliged none so zealously thankfull Seven Devils were cast out of her by the command of Christ That Heart which was freed from Satan by that powerfull dispossession was now possessed with a free and gracious bounty to her deliverer Twice at the least hath she poured out her fragrant and costly Odours upon him Where there is a true sense of favour and beneficence there cannot but be a fervent desire of retribution O Blessed Saviour could we feel the danger of every sin and the malignity of those spirituall possessions from which thou hast freed us how should we pour out our selves into thankfulness unto thee Every