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
the two Wonders of the World are met under one roof and congratulate their mutuall Happiness When we have Christ spiritually conceived in us we cannot be quiet till we have imparted our Joy Elizabeth that holy Matron did no sooner welcome her Blessed Cousin then her Babe welcomes his Saviour Both in the retired Closets of their Mother's Womb are sensible of each other's presence the one by his Omniscience the other by Instinct He did not more forerun Christ then over-run Nature How should our hearts leap within us when the Son of God vouchsafes to come into the secret of our Souls not to visit us but to dwell with us to dwell in us III. The Birth of CHRIST AS all the actions of men so especially the publick actions of publick men are ordered by God to other ends then their own This Edict went not so much out from Augustus as from the Court of Heaven What did Caesar know Joseph and Mary His charge was universal to a world of Subjects through all the Roman Empire God intended this Cension onely for the Blessed Virgin and her Son that Christ might be born where he should Caesar meant to fill his Coffers God meant to fulfill his Prophecies and so to fulfill them that those whom it concerned might not feel the Accomplishment If God had directly commanded the Virgin to goe up to Bethlehem she had seen the intention and expected the issue But that wise Moderatour of all things that works his will in us loves so to doe it as may be least with our fore-sight and acquaintance and would have us fall under his Decrees unawares that we may so much the more adore the depths of his Providence Every Creature walks blindfold onely He that dwells in light sees whither they goe Doubtless Blessed Mary meant to have been delivered of her Divine burthen at home and little thought of changing the place of Conception for another of her Birth That house was honoured by the Angel yea by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost none could equally satisfie her hopes or desires It was fit that He who made choice of the Womb wherein his Son should be conceived should make choice of the place where his Son should be born As the Work is all his so will he alone contrive all the Circumstances to his own ends O the infinite Wisedome of God in casting all his designs There needs no other proof of Christ then Caesar and Bethlehem and of Caesars then Augustus his Government his Edict pleads the truth of the Messias His Government Now was the deep Peace of all the world under that quiet Scepter which made way for him who was the Prince of Peace If Wars be a sign of the time of his second Coming Peace was a sign of his first His Edict Now was the Scepter departed from Juda it was the time for Shilo to come no power was left in the Jews but to obey Augustus is the Emperour of the World under him Herod is the King of Judaea Cyrenius is President of Syria Jewrie hath nothing of her own For Herod if he were a King yet he was no Jew and if he had been a Jew yet he was no otherwise a King then tributary and titular The Edict came out from Augustus was executed by Cyrenius Herod is no actour in this service Gain and glory are the ends of this Taxation each man profest himself a Subject and paid for the privilege of his Servitude Now their very Heads were not their own but must be payed for to the Head of a forrein State They which before stood upon the terms of their Immunity stoop at the last The proud suggestions of Judas the Galilaean might shed their bloud and swell their stomacks but could not ease their yoak neither was it the meaning of God that Holiness if they had been as they pretended should shelter them from Subjection A Tribute is imposed upon God's free people This act of Bondage brings them Liberty Now when they seemed most neglected of God they are blessed with a Redeemer when they are most pressed with forrein Sovereignty God sends them a King of their own to whom Caesar himself must be a Subject The goodness of our God picks out the most needfull times for our relief and comfort Our extremities give him the most glory Whither must Joseph and Mary come to be taxed but unto Bethlehem David's City The very Place proves their Descent He that succeeded David in his Throne must succeed him in the place of his Birth So clearly was Bethlehem designed to this honour by the Prophets that even the Priests and the Scribes could point Herod unto it and assured him the King of the Jews could be no-where else born Bethlehem justly the House of Bread the Bread that came down from Heaven is there given to the world Whence should we have the Bread of life but from the House of bread O holy David was this the Well of Bethlehem whereof thou didst so thirst to drink of old when thou saidst Oh that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethlehem Surely that other Water when it was brought thee by thy Worthies thou pouredst it on the ground and wouldst not drink of it This was that living Water for which thy soul longed whereof thou saidst elsewhere As the Hart brayeth after the water-brooks so longeth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God It was no less then four days journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem How just an excuse might the Blessed Virgin have pleaded for her absence What woman did ever undertake such a journey so near her delivery And doubtless Joseph who was now taught of God to love and honour her was loth to draw forth a dear Wife in so unwieldy a case into so manifest hazard But the Charge was peremptory the Obedience exemplary The desire of an inoffensive observance even of Heathenish authority digests all difficulties We may not take easie occasions to withdraw our Obedience to supreme commands Yea how didst thou O Saviour by whom Augustus reigned in the womb of thy Mother yield this Homage to Augustus The first Lesson that ever thy Example taught us was Obedience After many steps are Joseph and Mary come to Bethlehem The plight wherein she was would not allow any speed and the forced leisure of the journey causeth disappointment the end was worse then the way there was no rest in the way there was no room in the Inne It could not be but that there were many of the kindred of Joseph and Mary at that time in Bethlehem for both there were their Ancestours born if not themselves and thither came up all the Cousins of their bloud yet there and then doth the Holy Virgin want room to lay either her head or her burthen If the House of David had not lost all mercy and good nature a Daughter of David could not so near the time of
have seen Oft-times those which are nearest in place are farthest off in affection Large objects when they are too close to the eye do so over-fill the sense that they are not discerned What a shame is this to Bethlehem the Sages came out of the East to worship him whom that village refused The Bethlehemites were Jews the Wise men Gentiles This first entertainment of Christ was a presage of the sequell The Gentiles shall come from far to adore Christ whilst the Jews reject him Those Easterlings were great searchers of the depths of nature professed Philosophers them hath God singled out to the honour of the manifestation of Christ Humane Learning well improved makes us capable of Divine There is no Knowledge whereof God is not the Authour he would never have bestowed any gift that should lead us away from himself It is an ignorant conceit that inquiry into Nature should make men Atheous No man is so apt to see the Star of Christ as a diligent disciple of Philosophy Doubtlesse this light was visible unto more onely they followed it who knew it had more then nature He is truly wise that is wise for his own Soul If these Wise men had been acquainted with all the other stars of heaven and had not seen the Star of Christ they had had but light enough to lead them into utter darknesse Philosophie without this Star is but the wisp of errour These Sages were in a mean between the Angels and the Shepherds God would in all the ranks of intelligent Creatures have some to be witnesses of his Son The Angels direct the Shepherds the Star guides the Sages the duller capacitie hath the more clear and powerfull helps The wisedome of our good God proportions the means unto the disposition of the persons Their Astronomy had taught them this Star was not ordinary whether in sight or in brightnesse or in motion The eyes of Nature might well see that some strange news was portended to the world by it but that this Star designed the Birth of the Messias there needed yet another light If the Star had not besides had the commentary of a revelation from God it could have led the Wise men onely into a fruitlesse wonder Give them to be the offspring of Balaam yet the true Prediction of that false Prophet was not enough warrant If he told them the Messias should arise as a Star out of Jacob he did not tell them that a Star should arise far from the posterity of Jacob at the birth of the Messias He that did put that Prophecy into the mouth of Balaam did also put this Illumination into the heart of the Sages The Spirit of God is free to breathe where he listeth Many shall come from the East and the West to seek Christ when the Children of the Kingdom shall be shut out Even then God did not so confine his election to the pale of the Church as that he did not sometimes look out for special instruments of his glory Whither do these Sages come but to Jerusalem where should they hope to hear of the new King but in the Mother-city of the Kingdome The conduct of the Star was first onely generall to Judaea the rest is for a time left to inquiry They were not brought thither for their own sakes but for Jewrie's for the world's that they might help to make the Jews inexcusable and the world faithfull That their tongues therefore might blazon the birth of Christ they are brought to the Head-citie of Judaea to report and inquire Their wisedome could not teach them to imagine that a King could be born to Judaea of that note and magnificence that a Star from Heaven should publish him to the earth and that his subjects should not know it and therefore as presupposing a common notice they say Where is he that is born King of the Jews There is much deceit in probabilities especially when we meddle with spirituall matters For God uses still to go a way by himself If we judge according to reason and appearance who is so likely to understand heavenly Truths as the profound Doctours of the world These God passes over and reveals his will to babes Had these Sages met with the Shepherds of the villages near Bethlehem they had received that intelligence of Christ which they did vainly seek from the learned Scribes of Jerusalem The greatest Clerks are not alwaies the wisest in the affairs of God these things goe not by discourse but by revelation No sooner hath the Star brought them within the noise of Jerusalem then it is vanished out of sight God would have their eyes lead them so far as till their tongues might be set on work to win the vocal attestation of the chief Priests and Scribes to the fore-appointed place of our Saviour's Nativity If the Star had carried them directly to Bethlehem the learned Jews had never searched the truth of those Prophecies wherewith they are since justly convinced God never withdraws our helps but for a farther advantage However our hopes seem crossed where his Name may gain we cannot complain of loss Little did the Sages think this Question would have troubled Herod they had I fear concealed their message if they had suspected this event Sure they thought it might be some Son or Grandchild of him which then held the Throne so as this might win favour from Herod rather then an unwelcome fear of rivality Doubtless they went first to the Court where else should they ask for a King The more pleasing this news had been if it had faln upon Herod's own loins the more grievous it was to light upon a Stranger If Herod had not over-much affected Greatness he had not upon those indirect terms aspired to the Crown of Jewry so much the more therefore did it trouble him to hear the rumour of a Successour and that not of his own Settled Greatness cannot abide either change or partnership If any of his Subjects had moved this question I fear his head had answered it It is well that the name of forreiners could excuse these Sages Herod could not be brought up among the Jews and not have heard many and confident reports of a Messias that should ere long arise out of Israel and now when he hears the fame of a King born whom a Star from Heaven signifies and attends he is nettled with the news Every thing affrights the guilty Usurpation is full of jealousies and fear no less full of projects and imaginations it makes us think every bush a man and every man a thief Why art thou troubled O Herod A King is born but such a King as whose Scepter may ever concur with lawfull Sovereignty yea such a King as by whom Kings do hold their Scepters not lose them If the Wise men tell thee of a King the Star tells thee he his Heavenly Here is good cause of security none of fear The most general enmities and oppositions to good arise
think the weather is changing to serenity O Saviour we may not always measure thy meaning by thy semblance sometimes what thou most intendest thou shewest least In our Afflictions thou turnest thy back upon us and hidest thy face from us when thou most mindest our distresses So Jonathan shot the arrows beyond David when he meant them to him So Joseph calls for Benjamin into bonds when his heart was bound to him in the strongest affection So the tender mother makes as if she would give away her crying child whom she hugs so much closer in her bosome If thou pass by us whilst we are struggling with the tempest we know it is not for want of mercy Thou canst not neglect us O let not us distrust thee What Object should have been so pleasing to the eyes of the Disciples as their Master and so much the more as he shewed his Divine power in this miraculous walk But lo contrarily they are troubled not with his presence but with this form of presence The supernatural works of God when we look upon them with our own eyes are subject to a dangerous misprision The very Sun-beams to whom we are beholden for our sight if we eye them directly blind us Miserable men we are ready to suspect Truths to run away from our safety to be afraid of our comforts to mis-know our best friends And why are they thus troubled They had thought they had seen a Spirit That there have been such apparitions of Spirits both good and evil hath ever been a Truth undoubtedly received of Pagans Jews Christians although in the blind times of Superstition there was much collusion mixed with some verities Crafty men and lying spirits agreed to abuse the credulous world But even where there was not Truth yet there was Horrour The very Good Angels were not seen without much fear their sight was construed to bode Death how much more the Evil which in their very nature are harmfull and pernicious We see not a Snake or a Toad without some recoiling of bloud and sensible reluctation although those creatures run away from us how much more must our hairs stand upright and our senses boggle at the sight of a Spirit whose both nature and will is contrary to ours and professedly bent to our hurt But say it had been what they mistook it for a Spirit why should they fear Had they well considered they had soon found that evil spirits are never the less present when they are not seen and never the less harmfull or malicious when they are present unseen Visibility adds nothing to their spite or mischief And could their eyes have been opened they had with Elisha's servant seen more with them then against them a sure though invisible guard of more powerfull Spirits and themselves under the protection of the God of Spirits so as they might have bidden a bold defiance to all the powers of darkness But partly their Faith was yet but in the bud and partly the presentation of this dreadfull Object was sudden and without the respite of a recollection and settlement of their thoughts Oh the weakness of our frail Nature who in the want of Faith are affrighted with the visible appearance of those adversaries whom we profess daily to resist and vanquish and with whom we know the Decree of God hath matched us in an everlasting conflict Are not these they that ejected Devils by their command Are not these of them that could say Master the evil spirits are subdued to us Yet now when they see but an imagined Spirit they fear What power there is in the eye to betray the heart Whilst Goliah was mingled with the rest of the Philistin hoast Israel camped boldly against them but when that Giant stalks out single between the two armies and fills and amazes their eyes with his hideous stature now they run away for fear Behold we are committed with Legions of Evil spirits and complain not Let but one of them give us some visible token of his presence we shreek and tremble and are not our selves Neither is our weakness more conspicuous then thy mercy O God in restraining these spiritual enemies from these dreadfull and ghastly representations of themselves to our eyes Might those infernal Spirits have liberty to appear how and when and to whom they would certainly not many would be left in their wits or in their lives It is thy power and goodness to frail mankind that they are kept in their chains and reserved in the darkness of their own spiritual being that we may both oppugn and subdue them unseen But oh the deplorable condition of reprobate souls If but the imagined sight of one of these spirits of darkness can so daunt the heart of those which are free from their power what a terrour shall it be to live perpetually in the sight yea under the torture of thousands of legions of millions of Devils Oh the madness of wilfull sinners that will needs run themselves headily into so dreadfull a damnation It was high time for our Saviour to speak What with the Tempest what with the Apparition the Disciples were almost lost with fear How seasonable are his gracious redresses Till they were thus affrighted he would not speak when they were thus affrighted he would not hold his peace If his presence were fearfull yet his word was comfortable Be of good chear it is I yea it is his word onely which must make his presence both known and comfortable He was present before they mistook him and feared there needs no other erection of their drooping hearts but It is I. It is cordial enough to us in the worst of our afflictions to be assured of Christ's presence with us Say but It is I O Saviour and let evils doe their worst thou needest not say any more Thy voice was evidence enough so well were the Disciples acquainted with the tongue of thee their Master that It is I was as much as an hundred names Thou art the good Shepherd we are not of thy Flock if we know thee not by thy voice from a thousand Even this one is a great word yea an ample style It is I. The same tongue that said to Moses I am hath sent thee saith now to the Disciples It is I I your Lord and Master I the Commander of winds and waters I the soveraign Lord of Heaven and earth I the God of Spirits Let Heaven be but as one scroll and let it be written all over with titles they cannot express more then It is I. Oh sweet and seasonable word of a gracious Saviour able to calm all tempests able to revive all hearts Say but so to my Soul and in spight of Hell I am safe No sooner hath Jesus said I then Peter answers Master He can instantly name him that did not name himself Every little hint is enough to Faith The Church sees her Beloved as well through the Lattice as through the open Window Which
injoying them Jerusalem was grown a City of bloud to the persecution of the Prophets to a wilfull despight of what belonged to her peace to a profanation of God's Temple to a mere formality in God's services and yet here were publick works of Charity in the midst of her streets We may not always judge of the truth of Piety by charitable actions Judas disbursed the money for Christ there was no Traitour but he The poor traveller that was robb'd and wounded betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho was passed over first by the Priest then the Levite at last the Samaritan came and relieved him His Religion was naught yet his act was good the Priest's and Levite's Religion good their Uncharity ill Novatus himself was a Martyr yet a Schismatick Faith is the soul and good works are the breath saith S. James but as you see in a pair of bellows there is a forced breath without life so in those that are puffed up with the wind of ostentation there may be charitable works without Faith The Church of Rome unto her four famous Orders of Jacobins Franciscans Augustines and Carmelites hath added a fifth of Jesuites and like another Jerusalem for those five Leprous and lazarly Orders hath built five Porches that if the water of any State be stirred they may put in for a share How many Cells and Convents hath she raised for these miserable Cripples and now she thinks though she exalt her self above all that is called God though she dispense with and against God though she fall down before every block and wafer though she kill Kings and equivocate with Magistrates she is the onely City of God Digna est nam struxit Synagogam She is worthy for she hath built a Synagogue Are we more orthodox and shall not we be as charitable I am ashamed to think of rich Noblemen and Merchants that die and give nothing to our five Porches of Bethesda What shall we say Have they made their Mammon their God in stead of making friends with their Mammon to God Even when they die will they not like Ambrose's good Usurers part with that which they cannot hold that they may get that which they cannot lose Can they begin their will In Dei nomine Amen and give nothing to God Is he onely a Witness and not a Legatee Can we bequeath our Souls to Christ in Heaven and give nothing to his Lims on earth And if they will not give yet will they not lend to God He that gives to the poor foeneratur Deo lends to God Will they put out to any but God and then when in stead of giving security he receives with one hand and pays with another receives our bequest and gives us glory Oh damnable niggardliness of vain men that shames the Gospel and loses Heaven Let me shew you a Bethesda that wants Porches What truer house of effusion then the Church of God which sheds forth waters of comfort yea of life Behold some of the Porches of this Bethesda so far from building that they are pulled down It is a wonder if the demolished stones of God's House have not built some of yours and if some of you have not your rich Suits garded with Souls There were wont to be reckoned three wonders of England Ecclesia Foemina Lana The Churches the Women the Wool Foemina may pass still who may justly challenge wonder for their Vanity if not their Person As for Lana if it be wonderfull alone I am sure it is ill joyned with Ecclesia The Church is fleeced and hath nothing but a bare pelt left upon her back And as for Ecclesia either men have said with the Babylonians Down with it down with it even to the ground or else in respect of the Maintenance with Judas Vt quid perditio haec Why was this waste How many remorsefull souls have sent back with Jacob's sons their money in their Sacks mouths How many great Testators have in their last Will returned the anathematized peculium of Impropriations to the Church chusing rather to impair their heir then to burthen their Souls Dum times nè pro te patrimonium tuum perdas ipse pro patrimonio tuo peris saith Cyprian Whilst thou fearest to lose thy patrimony for thy own good thou perishest with thy patrimony Ye great men spend not all your time in building Castles in the air or houses on the sand but set your hands and purses to the building of the Porches of Bethesda It is a shame for a rich Christian to be like a Christmas-box that receives all and nothing can be got out till it be broken in pieces or like unto a drown'd man's hand that holds whatsoever it gets To doe good and to distribute forget not for with such Sacrifices God is well pleased This was the Place what was the Use of it All sorts of Patients were at the bank of Bethesda where should Cripples be but at the Spittle The sick blind lame withered all that did either morbo laborare or vitio corporis complain either of sickness or impotency were there In natural course one receit heals not all diseases no nor one Agent one is an Oculist another a Bone-setter another a Chirurgeon But all diseases are alike to the supernaturall power of God Hippocrates though the Prince of Physicians yet swears by Aesculapius he will never meddle with cutting of the Stone There is no Disease that Art will not meddle with there are many that it cannot cure The poor Haemorrhoïssa was eighteen years in the Physicians hands and had purged away both her body and her substance Yea some it kills in stead of healing whence one Hebrew word signifies both Physicians and dead men But behold here all Sicknesses cured by one hand and by one water O all ye that are spiritually sick and diseased come to the Pool of Bethesda the Bloud of Christ Do ye complain of the Blindness of your Ignorance here ye shall receive clearness of Sight of the distemper of Passions here Ease of the superfluity of your sinfull Humours here Evacuation of the impotency of your Obedience here Integrity of the dead witheredness of good Affections here Life and Vigour Whatsoever your infirmity be come to the Pool of Bethesda and be healed All these may be cured yet shall be cured at leisure all must wait all must hope in waiting Methinks I see how enviously these Cripples look one upon another each thinking other a lett each watching to prevent other each hoping to be next like emulous Courtiers that gape and vie for the next preferment and think it a pain to hope and a torment to be prevented But Bethesda must be waited on He is worthy of his Crutches that will not stay God's leisure for his Cure There is no virtue no success without patience Waiting is a familiar lesson with Courtiers and here we have all need of it One is sick of an overflowing of the Gall another of a Tumour of
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