Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps whcih thou hast sucked But he said Yea rather blessed are they that hear the word of God and keep it THis is the Sons day and not the Mothers This is Christs own day and not Maries Therefore it is not for the Wombs sake but for the Fruit of the Womb not for the Paps of a mortal woman but for the Infants sake an immortal God that I have chosen this Text. A good Israelitess she was that magnified Christ on this manner though she was not spoken to yet her heart was full and she must speak for her joy would have stifled her if she had not uttered it If you mark the Context of the Chapter immediately before these words our Saviour had taught his Disciples to pray most divinely he had cast out devils most triumphantly he had answered the Calumniations of the Pharisees most rationally he had put on glorious apparel as the Psalmist says and girded himself with strength While these wonderful works were fresh in memory the Lord from on high could have sent Legions of Angels to magnifie his Son and to praise him with celestial Canticles But to strike the greater shame into the Pharisees that had blasphemed him he stirs up a woman a nameless one a poor Plebeian one not admitted near him she stood afar off and was fain to speak aloud to be heard Blessed is the Womb that bare thee and the Paps which thou hast sucked It was a free acclamation a sudden start a passion that came from her spirit ex tempore and that I may give Christ his full honour and attribute no more to the woman than is truth she prophesied in this saying of greater things than at that time she understood The Holy Ghost gave her the priviledge to be the tongue that delivered this Congratulation but it remains to us to lend it an heart that we may truly conceive it For the inward sense of it is the gladsom contents of this day blessed be the Father of all mercies for the Incarnation of his Son that he was made of a woman for our sakes and blessed are all mankind that he hath taken flesh of our flesh and that he is made partaker of our humane nature But because it would not prove our benefit that he was born for us unless he be born in us likewise by faith and obedience it follows to make our joy and crown complete yea rather blessed are they that hear c. The parts are as manifestly two as the two hands wherewith we handle First Blessedness offered to us in Christs Incarnation Secondly Blessedness made complete in our own application The woman begins the Text in the first part Christ finished in the second She said well for his Incarnation Blessed is the Womb that bare thee He makes it much better by stirrig us up to the use and fruit of it yea rather c. She blesseth Christ and Christ blesseth us she would have all felicity to rest in him he would have a share of felicity to be derived to us A pretty strife between a devout Creature and a merciful Creator between an humble Servant and a bountiful Master between a true faith that heaps all honour upon God and between a gracious God that heaps the treasures of his riches upon a true faith To begin with that which the woman said it must be considered two ways in a Litteral sense such as flesh and bloud revealed to her And in a Prophetical sense above her understanding such as the Spirit of God hath revealed to us Blessed is the Womb that bare thee And so it was indeed according to the Latitude of this womans natural understanding For first she knew at large that it was a blessed thing to be an Instrument or conveyance of any great good unto others Blessed above women shall Jael the wife of Heber be blessed shall she be above women in the Tent Judg. v. 24. Shee had done her part to work deliverance for Israel And when Judith had sped in her adventure to cut off the head of Holofernes says Oziah Blessed art thou of the most high God above all the women upon earth Judith xiii 18. A good Messenger is called an happy and the feet of those are pronounced beautiful that bring glad tidings of peace It is a narrow and an abject conceit of some that think themselves fortunate and at the best when they receive and take in all that can be heapt upon them These men measure felicity backward for beatius est dare quam accipere it is more blessed to give than to receive Though that Maxim be not extant in any of the Evangelists St. Paul tells us upon his credit it was our Saviours The souls of them that are converted to true holiness shall bless the lips of the Priest the poor shall bless the liberal after Ages shall bless publick Spirits that do famous things and are provident for Posterity A Cistern that contains the waters poured into it is much inferiour to a Fountain that sends them forth It is nothing so laudible to be wrought upon as to work that which is honourable Even the Parents that have enricht the world with such as are ornaments unto it benediction reflects upon them for it because they are Conduit pipes of publick felicity Yet all those that have made others happy by their gifts and qualities had been for ever unhappy themselves if the Child that was born this day had not suckt the breasts of a Virgin O happy Parent whose Womb contained all the treasure that maintains the whole earth Somewhat she collineated at this meaning that said unto our Saviour Blessed c. And each Parent partakes in this reason that it is joy and honour to them to have a renowned Son and it may be this woman was partial to her own Sex that contented her self to speak of no more than the womb of the Mother In strict Divinity indeed her words are admirable for Christ had no Father according to the flesh but that is more than I collect out of St. Luke that she mentioned not his Father for that reason But in all humane births that prove successful and glorious the loyns of the Father are blessed as well as the womb of the Mother and the glory of children are their Fathers Prov. xvii 6. Yet in the next construction of mere natural capacity it was proper to say for his sake blessed is the womb because barrenness was a curse and fruitfulness of children a blessing They that propagate a faithful seed upon earth give the means to replenish heaven with Saints it is that wherein we exceed Angels to beget Sons and Daughters in our own likeness and to continue a Generation like our selves makes mankind by succession as incorruptible as the Angels God blessed all living Creatures mark that God blessed them and said unto them be fruitful and multiply Gen. i. 28. Though the Lord said
days and three nights in the belly of the Whale so shall also the Son of man be in the lower parts of the earth as if Christ had been studious or rather would teach us to be studious to keep the pattern as near as we can of the good Generations that went before us I would be sorry such ignorance should be in any here to make a question whether Christ could have continued to fast not only for the space of so many days but all his life without the corruptible aliments of meats and drinks But if he had produced his abstinence from all food longer than Moses and Elias for the space of many months or many years it would have been incredible to many that he had been perfect man of the substance of his Mother and Heresies would have had strong grounds for delusions that he had not a fleshly but a celestial body How much better did his humility condescend to the likeness of his own Prophets And because he came but in the shape of a servant he would not exceed all example or outgo the miraculous fast of his fellow-servants he would have the world take knowledge of him to be a mighty Prophet at least no ways inferiour to the best that ever lived therefore he fasted forty days and forty nights like Moses and Elias But in this the one is as divers from the other and as much excels the other as can be imagined Moses and Elias were preserved by Gods mighty arm that their natural complexion might subsist without sustenance but Christs vertue was in himself and of himself absolute independent they were kept safe by an external power Christ by his own Godhead and by no derivative vertue Such glorious miracles are rather to be adored with admiration than to be followed with imperfect imitation And because a large field of controversie lies before me in this Point touching the observation of our Lenten temperance for forty days whether that ordinance were regulated by the example of Christ I will lay down three several heads of opinions in their order and bring you by degrees I hope to the truth of the controversie 1. I will enquire whether Christ did intend to ordain a prefixt time of abstinence in the Church for forty days by his example 2. If that be not so sound to hold yet whether it were an Apostolical Tradition 3. If that can neither be proved yet whether it be a laudable Ecclesiastical Constitution To the question of the first enquiry many of the greatest Doctors in the Church of Rome answer that the observance of the Quadragesimal Fast binds all Christians from our Saviours example So Cardinal Bellarmine Non verbis praescripsit hoc jejunium Christus sed exemplo praecepit we have no such ordinance in express words throughout all the Scripture to say do thus but it is an ordinance from Christs example And Maldonat the Jesuit though Lent be not founded upon Christs Commandment yet it is founded upon his Example and that is enough to say it leans upon divine Authority Beloved it behoves not us to lay burdens upon mens shoulders which God himself hath not imposed Whatsoever is commended to us for decorum and order sake we do it for conscience sake but whatsoever is no more but indifferent in it self and is obtruded upon us sub opinione necessitatis as necessary and irrefragable from divine Authority when it is not so we reject it Stand fast in the liberty wherewith God hath made you free says St. Paul Gal. v. 1. So St. Cyprian in the like case opposing them that invented traditions of their own and called them Gods Ordinances Periculosum est in divinis rebus ut quis cedat jure suo It is of a dangerous consequent to yield any thing to be a divine injunction which is not Therefore advising upon these rules I give a flat Negative upon the first question the Quadragesimal Fast is not necessarily to be observed from Christs example The old rule of divinity is a sure one Imitamur in moralibus admiramur in miraculosis in miraculous works we adore Christ with admiration in Moral Institutions we will follow him with imitation He anointed the eyes of the blind man with spittle and clay contraries to the cure according to nature and therefore we magnifie him is it not a most Heterogeneal Mimick from hence to make a mixture of spittle and oyl to an Infant baptized as if the Apostles had wanted ceremony to the Sacrament when they baptized with nothing but water If any man love me he will keep my sayings says our Lord but he never added If any man love me he will tie himself to my example where I never prescribed him to follow me For my part that which hapned to St. Peter works exceedingly upon my understanding in this case when he saw his Master walk upon the Sea as upon a solid Pavement he desired he might do the like and to let him know such miracles are to be lookt upon with the veneration of faith he sunk into the waters and was in peril of his life To stop every cranny of objection that can be made I read that the examples of Christs mighty works are sometimes pressed upon us to be drawn into an Analogical imitation 1 Pet. ii 21. Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps How is that Being reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not and as he died for us so we should offer our selves up to him as spiritual Sacrifices and as he died and rose again the third day so we should die unto sin and rise again unto newness of life From hence says Maldonat this is right our case for we take not upon us to eat nothing for forty days as Christ did but we keep a canonical temperance for forty days Imitamur quia sequimur quamvis non assequimur This is no more than the Analogical imitation Those other imitations of some similitude have a precept in the Book of God and this hath none Therefore let them teach that their imitation being not Scripture proof is but a voluntary and a diaphorous Constitution of the Church and the Church of England will never be their adversary For so it is frequent in the Writings of good Antiquitie to alledge Christs example for their observance of the forty days fast not according to the Roman Tenet at this day that Christ established it necessarily in all places from that time forth unto the end of the world but they alledged Christs example to countenance their voluntary and Ecclesiastical Sanctions What can be more direct on my side than St. Chrysostome Homil. 47. in Mat. Christ did not say as I fasted forty days so do ye follow me in fasting but learn of me because I am meek and lowly and ye shall find rest for your souls Surely if he had given any particular order for fasting in the New Testament the
in bloud and to sprinkle it seven times before the Lord septies sanguis no less would serve the turn and think you that Christ did fail in this perfect number no not once if you will count it 1. He was circumcised and there was bloud 2. He sweat in the Garden not without drops of bloud 3. He was buffetted upon the mouth that must needs draw bloud Then the scourgings upon his back the thorns platted upon his head the nails driven into his feet and hands those three likewise could not be without great effusion of bloud At the seventh and last time a Souldier thrust a Spear into his side and then came forth a stream of bloud The heart of man hath entangled it self with seven deadly sins like the Woman of Samaria seven had taken her to wife according to the number of the capital sins seven times did Christ lay down the price of a Ransom seven times the bloud was sprinkled before the Lord but when I say seven I do not exclude many more it is numerus finitus pro infinito The rich man in the Gospel besought Father Abraham that he would send Lazarus with his finger dipt in water to cool his tongue There was a foul mistake in the Petition to ask for water why not rather for bloud 't is bloud that quencheth the fire which without it is unquenchable And yet there is some use of water O the use of it is excellent and unvaluable therefore water also came from the side of Jesus It is a wonder that this dolorous Passion of our Lord did not call for fire to rain upon Jerusalem as it fell down upon Sodom and Gomorrah which lest it should be here was a pipe of water opened to quench the wrath of God Four great Rivers were little enough to water the Garden of Eden this little Spout is enough to water all the World for when all other Interpretations fail us the Stream that bubbled out of the side of Christ is the water above the Heavens all Israel drank of the Rock in the Wilderness every Soul which was a thirst drank What a copious deflux was that So all the Israel of God may drink of the spiritual Rock his Spring is no less abundant and that spiritual Rock is Christ A spiritual Rock did Paul say he was used no better than if he had been a very Rock of Stone As Moses struck the Rock with his Staff so was the Body of Christ with a Spear and water gushed out apace Now at several times there was a threefold passage of water in our Saviour sudoris lacrymarum lateris the one when he sweat in the Garden the second was the distillation of tears and the third was this Fountain which was opened in his side Put the seven Issues of bloud and the three Issues of water together and here are ten Drink-offerings according to the number of the Ten Commandments which we have broken Divinity is nothing else but a Tractate of admiration and lo a Miracle the last of Christ's Miracles before he was buried as the first Miracle which he wrought was by the Element of Water at Cana in Galilee so his last Miracle was in Water which came out of his side for that this was no natural Issue they know full well that have tried Dissections and Anatomies And where did you ever read that an Apostle urged the truth of that which he recited so far that he knew his record was true and that the thing was done that we might believe I say where did you ever meet with such a Protestation in the Bible if the thing entreated of were not a Miracle The sweat was miraculous in the Garden the bloud was miraculous which streamed afresh from the dead body so was this gush of water from his side most supernatural whether some inward part of Christ was resolved into this Element of a sudden or whether it was newly created for the purpose let them dispute it who love to seek that which they can never find But I am sure the water was miraculous and far be it from us to think that it was not water as some have doubted but a spumeous phlegmatick humour As Christ himself is truth and not appearance so this humour had not the name and appearance only but the essence of water There are three that bear record on earth says St. John the Spirit the Water and Blood the Spirit which he gave up when he groan'd his last and that was a true Spirit the Bloud that drill'd down from him and that was true Bloud the Water that leakt out of his side and that was very Water So much of the two Streams severally considered now I come to the Conjunction Bloud and Water For his love could bring forth no less than Twins sanguis aqua if he would undergo the Law was it not sufficient that he was circumcised and wounded in the flesh but he was baptized also in Jordan there was satisfaction both by Bloud and Water When he suffered the sharp Agony in the Garden water alone had been a sign of a terrible conflict with his Father but there trickled from him bloud and water When the whip did tear his flesh and the thorns enter into the quick many do modestly suppose that He mingled tears with bloud and then at every passion there was bloud and water John Baptist was the Forerunner of the Bridegroom he came only in water the Martyrs were the friends of the Bridegroom they came in bloud Christ is the Bridegroom himself and he came in bloud and water When the Spouse was asked what a one her Well-beloved was Cantic 4. she answered he was white and ruddy white in water and ruddy in bloud not by water alone says our Apostle Ep. 1. chap. 5. that had made but half a Mediator but by water and bloud Sanguis ejus super nos was the cry of the miscreant people they condemned him in bloud Pilate pronounced the Sentence but washed his hands at it he condemned him in water Let them behold whom they have pierced says Zachary let his Judg and Accusers behold their fact in one in bloud and water I told you of the Miracle before now I will tell you of the Mystery of this work or rather of the Mysteries for they are more than one aperuit ostium miles unde Sacramenta Ecclesiae manârunt that 's St. Austins observation the door was opened and the Sacraments of the Church issued out What all of them it seems he knew of no more the Sacraments of the Church came forth with Bloud and Water For as the Romanists make Bread serve the people by a Synechdoche for the whole Supper of the Lord so Bloud by a Synechdoche in this place stands for all that Sacrament There was Divinity even in the cold stream that flow'd from the side of Christ and it speaks like the bloud of Abel as if he had said away with
if he had pleased but to grasp the Loaves or to hold them in his Palm it was a full signification that his power and liberality were eminently met together for it is that hand which openeth and filleth all things The Apostles knew where these Loaves were forth-coming but they set not their mind upon them they would not meddle with them The People were an hungry and far from home in a desart place where there was nothing but grass Two hundred penyworth of bread perchance would have staid their stomachs and Philip thought that would be too little Howsoever they had not the money to buy it Five barly Loaves and two Fishes were all they had in store and who durst take them forth and shew them openly lest they should scramble and quarrel for them The People were ready to stone Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness when they were pinched with scarcity of food Therefore some gave counsel to send them away betimes certainly suspecting a mutiny But here is an accepit which runs cross to all their imaginations Christ betakes himself to those means which they contemned instead of dismissing the Congregation he calls them closer together instead of referring them to the Villages round about he contents them amply in that barren place Instead of the Tumult which was dreaded the issue came to great applause and admiration In all their days they had never seen such a Feast as this Table in the Wilderness where every Crum became an Handful Great things became vile and vile things became great by the dispensation of Christ In his own Person the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner and in his own hand the Loaves which the Disciples refused became such a Banquet as never was prepared Lord take it first into thine own hand whatsoever we receive and then it will increase and prosper Give us our daily bread and if it be thy gift for no more than one day the vertue of it will last a year Labour not then so much to have good things as to have them of God As David did quickly cast up a chearful account of all his estate O Lord my God all the store that we have it cometh of thine hand 1 Chron. xxix 16. whatsoever drops from his fingers is sweet smelling Myrrh Cant. v. 5. but all false ways he utterly abhors and whatsoever comes in by fraud by extortion by cavillation it will consume away as fast as ever the Loaves and Fishes increased But surely the whole quaternion of Evangelists have set down this Preamble to the Miracle with such joynt consent He took the Loaves that it cannot choose but have some depth of observation in it St. Chrysostome hath reacht it so far that great numbers follow him namely that our Saviour did impatronize himself thereby to the work which followed and published himself from thence to be the Author of the Miracle It was alike easie to his Omnipotency to say the word and to make bread of nothing Or to take a little into his hand and to amplifie it into a great quantity Depend upon this what we have he can increase and what we have not he can create it is all one to him But by handling the lump and so giving vertue to the augmentation the People might behold him as the Fountain of all Power and Majesty and say with the Lycaonians God is come down unto us in the likeness of man Hear what that Father says more unto it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It was very expedient that the People should be taught these two Articles of their belief that Christ came from the Father and that he was equal with the Father The one must be proved by power the other by holiness The one by taking the Loaves the other by giving thanks The one by doing all the other by calling upon God when he did all Put the case he had looked up to Heaven and furnished them with satiety of victuals out of nothing what would the multitude have said why this comes from above this is Gods doing and this Jesus is a Prophet that 's come from God O but can humane reason be brought to no better opinion of him 't is true whatsoever can be done they that are unbelievers may gain-say it yet to subdue all contradiction in them that are willing to obey the truth he took the bread and took the glory to himself to make every loaf content a thousand that they might cry out with the Centurion this is of a Truth the Son of God and it is no robbery to say he is equal with the Father So at Cana in Galilee he did not create wine when they wanted and supplied them out of nothing but he turned water into wine water of their own fetching as this was bread of their own bringing a pre-existent matter whose substance they knew to be vulgar and natural he wrought upon these sensible things before their eyes that they might impute the transmutation to his own Divinity Unto which of the Prophets therefore can you liken him in this Miracle Moses obtained Manna from Heaven by prayer and supplication Christ did this by his own hand The Widows Barrel of Meal did not waste nor her Cruise of Oyl fail it was Elias his prediction not his immediate operation Elisha bad his Servant set twenty barley loaves before an hundred men they did eat and left thereof yet for his own part he did not meddle with it because he would have the children of the Prophets ascribe all to the Word of the Lord they did according to that spirit upon them which was circumscribed and limited God had lent them a tongue to declare his noble acts but the hand which did all was far above the hand of power was radical in Heaven therefore this is a distinctive note to know the Master from his Servants he took the loaves He took them indeed but for justice sake it is fit to ask unde habuit from whence he had them A mean question many times hath found a grave resolution it may prove so in this Whence he had them Why some say the Disciples did own them for they answer him Matt. xiv 17. We have here but five loaves and two fishes The words bear it as if they were theirs because their Master was wont to carry them into desolate places and to detein them there all night it was their wonted providence to carry some small refection with them in their journey as it appears Matth. xvi 7. When our Saviour bad them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Saducees they reasoned among themselves saying it is because we have taken no bread Then they had not yet usually they do not forget it and it may be this was their provision for the present season But the votes of them are more that conceive they did belong to some other In the nineth verse Andrew says there is a Lad here
no not in Israel Nor is this a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Heathen called it an embasement of a good courage for the humble man hath the loftiest mind of all others if it be well observed for he reckons not by the magnificent pomp and praise of the World though he have no little part in it but esteems God and nothing else to be his glory and because he doth give God the glory in all things that are excellent therefore he doth invite the Spirit of Grace unto himself by a religious policy as thus Grace is no longer Grace than you confess it is conferred by meer gift and frank benevolence The proud is so arrogant in all his thoughts that he would not yield to that he thinks it was his due which could not justly or at least congruously be denied him Needs must the rain fall down from such a steepy Mountain and where will it find a place to rest but in a little Valley in a lowly heart which magnifies the love and favour of Christ for the gift of the Spirit above all things but we had no right to ask it because we were sinful we had no understanding to desire it because we were foolish it is omni modo gratuita a good turn freely bestowed in all respects why do you not see says Bernard gratia nullibi nomen suum tuetur nisi in humili the Grace of God should quite lose its nature unless it dropt upon the humble man sink down therefore like a valley to receive this water for the Lord resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble 1 Pet. v. 5. Secondly The Spirit holds this Analogy with water it washeth away all filth from the soul and maketh the heart clean which was defiled No superstition hath lasted longer or spread further than one I shall name unto you that an external sousing of the body in water did quite take away the guilt of all those sins which had been committed by the body So Euripides as wise an Heathen as any in the pack 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dive but into the Sea and it would rense away all their iniquities then the Jews encurred this errour by that corruption which the Romans brought among them especially the Pharisees who if they had walked in the streets or been in the Market presently washt as soon as they came home lest they had toucht or been toucht by somewhat unawares which was defiled by the Gentiles And if they washt all was well No marvel therefore if the savage Moriscoes have a strong fancy to this day how their filthiness is purged away if they bath in some river water every morning It is more strange that the Russian Christians in these times should attribute secret power to such an idle Ceremony but most foppish of all that the Priests of Rome would lead their whole Church into this delusion that venial sins are done away if a few drops of an hallowed casting bottel light upon the gaping people and many a shrewd knavery passeth under the name of a venial sin as it is to be seen in their Cases of Conscience Against all their errours which I have recited I lay my conclusion again nothing but the grace of God that water indeed which is above the heavens doth wash away all filth from the soul and make the heart clean which was defiled The which will appear the better by noting this preeminence in their difference Elementary water well applied takes away all impure soil that cleaves to a vessel But can it add a brightness to the Vessel better than it had in the first making No you will say that is not to be expected I but such is the operation of inward grace when it maketh clean an earthen vessel is still no better than earth when it is rensed in a River but if the Spirit from above abide within us if it wash and sanctifie this Vessel of clay it overlays it with Gold and makes it more precious by far than ever Then but a word spoken with grace and in due season is like apples of gold with pictures of silver says Solomon O how much have we need of it We are all black before God like the Children of an Ethiopian says the Prophet Amos. We have Vultus adustos faces as if they were scorched with flames Jer. xiii 8. And of others whom God did begin to loath their visage is blacker than a coal Lam. iv 8. Black will take no colour we use to say there is no help for it either by Art or Nature but if the supernatural hand be stretched out upon us then the Blackmore shall change his skin and the Leopard his spots As the bloud of the Mother after the birth of her Child keeps not the colour of bloud but becomes milk in her breasts so after we are begotten again by the Spirit and bring forth the fruits thereof our bloudy sins shall become milk and though they be read as Scarlet they shall be white as snow Isa i. 18. Yea the Prophet says of Jerusalem while it served the Lord her Nazarites were whiter than snow purer than milk Lam. iv 7. Doth not David promise as much unto himself if the Lord would renew a right spirit within him Lavabis me dealbabor super nivem Thou shalt wash me and I shall be whiter than the snow As if by the Sacred Unction from heaven his soul should have a new beauty which it never had before a plain Transfiguration such as our Saviours was in the Mount so that no Fuller upon earth could make a thing so white Solomon in all his Royalty was not cloathed like a Lilly of the field But take Solomon in his repentance whereof I perswade my self and his soul was much whiter than any Lilly in the field This is a superlative vertue wherewith the water in my Text is endowed to cleanse that which was foul from every spot and to make it surpass the whiteness which it had by nature Thirdly Happy is the tree that grows by the Rivers of waters No Plant can prosper unless sap and moysture nourish it So Grace is that coelestial water which supplies the root within us it makes the conscience abundant in good works and without it it is impossible to bring forth the fruits of righteousness Mark the rain which falls from heaven and the same shower which dropt out of one cloud increaseth sundry Plants in the same Garden according to the nature of the Plant. In one stalk it makes a Rose in another a Violet divers in a third but sweet in all So the Spirit is a moistning dew which works rare effects in several dispositions and all most acceptable to God Is your Complexion Cholerick Try thine own heart if it be apt to be zealous in a good cause If it be so it is the fruit of the Spirit that works upon your constitution Is Melancholy predominant The grace of God turns that sad
humour into devotion and Prayer Is your Temperature Sanguine and chearful I can tell what that will do if this living water feed it the mind will be bountiful easie to remit injuries glad of reconciliation comfortable to the distressed always rejoycing in the Lord. If a man be Phlegmatick and fearful there is a trial likewise what God can bring forth from such a nature How wary will the Conscience be to give no offence How pitiful How penitent How ready to weep over its own transgressions Finally in every Age of the life old or young in every condition of fortune regal honourable or servile this living water where God pleaseth incorporates it self into it and makes it grow and fructifie according to that use and purpose for which it was planted It is water then which doth increase and vegetate every Plant which our heavenly Father hath planted but with much disparity from our common waters as you may apprehend by divers instances For first pour all that you can draw from your fountain upon a tree that is quite dead and your labour is lost it will never spring again but most wretched were the state of man if the water which Christ gives did not bring us to live again when we were quite dead in corruption And you being dead in your sins hath he quickned c. having forgiven you all your trespasses Col ii 13. All the Sons of Adam beside our earthly mortality are under the infliction of a double death by nature it is a spiritual death to be bereft of grace It is an eternal death to be guilty of hell fire We are St. Judes fruitless trees bis mortuae once were enough but we are twice dead pluckt up from the root yet if the light of Gods countenance shine upon us we shall sprout again and wax green like a Cedar in Libanus What a sapless tree was Zachaeus before the Holy Ghost the Lord and giver of life as we do well call him in the Nicene Creed did bring salvation to his house You might as soon have squeezed water from a Pummy stone as charity from a Publican before his conversion yet though he were dead in covetousness as soon as He began to live in him he scattered abroad and gave unto the poor As the Father said of his Prodigal Child being now come home into his bosom This thy brother was dead and is alive again So let every penitent soul confess my root was dried up how should it come to spring again but by some influence from heaven I was a withered tree that cumbered the ground how am I exalted like Aarons Rod to bring forth Buds and Almonds I was a sensless stone and God hath raised me from thence to be a Child of Abraham Take another instance of diversity in every Plant that lives water is the means to make it bear but in every Plant it makes it bear such fruit and no other as was first grafted upon it it causeth a Fig-tree to bring forth Figs and a Vine to be laden with Grapes But if the fruit were sowre and unpleasant by nature water it while your arms ake it will never help it But this water in my Text which is so worthy of our Saviours praise it will make you gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles Indeed it should do so but our Preaching is no better with many than River water gushing upon a Crab-tree the more we teach the more you are laden with your own natural fruit Pride Luxury Intemperance Faction Malice and Incontinency are as rife as ever they were nothing grows upon the stock for all the labour that is spent but sowre Wildings that set the teeth on edge it seems the chief ingredient is wanting the blessing from above you mind other things and then the chief pipe of all will be stopt by which the Spirit should enter into our soul There are some and I would they were but few that put in Bill and Answer as it were against Gods plea they urge their personal infirmities and natural inclinations and think that God can ask no more I am dull of understanding says one and what I am taught I cannot bear it away I am suddenly transported with indignation and I cannot suffer I am retentive of a wrong and cannot easily be reconciled All these are in the same tune with those ill manner'd Guests in the Gospel we cannot come I pray you have us excused Humilitas sonat in ore superbia in actione To plead excuse is a form of humility but in effect it is an open arrogancy Spend this breath of excuse in Prayer and Supplication and cry out often and affectionately drop down upon this heart O Lord drop down upon it and it shall bring forth fruit quite against the grain of your custom quite against the bias of nature The high-minded shall be humble as a Lamb The implacable shall forgive his brother seventy times seven times The Impostor shall make restitution the Bravaries of the time shall confess and amend their vanity Loe this is an alteration which nothing can produce but living water from natural sterility of good to supernatural fruitfulness Origen confounds Celsus with this Argument that the Christian Religion must needs be the power of God and not of man For in all Kingdoms where it had success it did civilize the most barbarous Nations It did mollifie and intenerate the most stony hearts It brought in Justice and good Laws among them that lived by Rapine and Robbery A strange fruit to be found upon such wild Plants Could it otherwise come to pass than because they were watered from above I think you will like this Doctrine best in the Prophet Isaiahs expression Chap. xi 6. under the Kingdom of Christ so it goes before The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid. The Calf and the young Lâ—on and the Fatling shall feed together and a young Child shall lead them All that place is noted by Eusebius for a Prophesie to be meant of the conversion of the Gentiles whose brutishness and savage life was changed into good nurture and sweet conversation Ye were darkness but now ye are light in the Lord. O blessed are ye when that which is natural and inbred to our disposition drops off and grows no more Then if ye be planted by the River of God ye shall bring forth your fruit in due season and look whatsoever you do it shall prosper Take a third instance of diversity Our Elementary water helps a Plant to bring forth one kind fruit at one season of the year and this is a blessing of Gods left hand to fill us with the plenty of the earth but the water which is the blessing of his right hand hath this excellency to make the same tree bear all manner of spiritual fruit and at all times and seasons never unfurnisht never empty A moral temperate man may be unjust A