Is this the honour that thou givest to our sacred Priesthood Is this thy valuation of our Sanctity Had the basest of the vulgar complained to thee thou couldst but have put them to a review Our Place and Holiness look'd not to be distrusted If our scrupulous Consciences suspect thy very walls thou maist well think there is small reason to suspect our Consciences Upon a full hearing ripe deliberation and exquisitely-judiciall proceeding we have sentenced this Malefactour to death there needs no more from thee but thy command of Execution Oh monster whether of Malice or Unjustice Must he then be a Malefactour whom ye will condemn Is your bare word ground enough to shed bloud Whom did ye ever kill but the righteous By whose hands perished the Prophets The word was but mistaken ye should have said If we had not been Malefactours we had never delivered up this innocent man unto thee It must needs be notoriously unjust which very Nature hath taught Pagans to abhor Pilate sees and hates this bloudy suggestion and practice Do ye pretend Holiness and urge so injurious a violence If he be such as ye accuse him where is his conviction If he cannot be legally convicted why should he die Do you think I may take your complaint for a crime If I must judge for you why have you judged for your selves Could ye suppose that I would condemn any man unheard If your Jewish Laws yield you this liberty the Roman Laws yield it not to me It is not for me to judge after your laws but after our own Your prejudgment may not sway me Since ye have gone so far be ye your own carvers of Justice Take ye him and judge him according to your Law O Pilate how happy had it been for thee if thou hadst held thee there thus thou hadst wash'd thy hands more clean then in all thy basons Might Law have been the rule of this Judgment and not Malice this bloud had not been shed How palpably doth their tongue bewray their heart It is not lawfull for us to put any man to death Pilate talks of Judgment they talk of Death This was their onely aim Law was but a colour Judgment was but a ceremony Death was their drift and without this nothing Bloud-thirsty Priests and Elders it is well that this power of yours is restrained no Innocence could have been safe if your lawless will had had no limits It were pity this sword should be in any but just and sober hands Your fury did not always consult with Law what Law allowed your violence to Stephen to Paul and Barnabas and your deadly attempts against this Blessed Jesus whom ye now persecute How lawfull was it for you to procure that death which ye could not inflict It is all the care of Hypocrites to seek umbrages and pretences for their hatefull purposes and to make no other use of Laws whether Divine or humane but to serve turns Where death is fore-resolved there cannot want accusations Malice is not so barren as not to yield crimes enough And they began to accuse him saying We found this fellow perverting the nation and forbidding to give tribute unto Caesar saying that he himself is Christ and King What accusations saidst thou O Pilate Hainous and capitall Thou mightest have believed our confident intimation but since thou wilt needs urge us to particulars know that we come furnished with such an inditement as shall make thine ears glow to hear it Besides that Blasphemy whereof he hath been condemned by us this man is a Seducer of the people a raiser of Sedition an usurper of Sovereignty O impudent suggestion What marvell is it O Saviour if thine honest servants be loaded with slanders when thy most innocent person escaped not so shamefull criminations Thou a perverter of the Nation who taughtest the way of God truely Thou a forbidder of Tribute who payedst it who prescribedst it who provedst it to be Caesar's due Thou a challenger of temporall Sovereignty who avoidedst it renouncedst it professedst to come to serve Oh the forehead of Malice Go ye shameless traducers and swear that Truth is guilty of all Falshood Justice of all Wrong and that the Sun is the onely cause of Darkness Fire of Cold. Now Pilate startles at the Charge The name of Tribute the name of Caesar is in mention These potent spells can fetch him back to the common Hall and call Jesus to the Bar. There O Saviour standest thou meekly to be judged who shalt once come to judge the quick and the dead Then shall he before whom thou stoodest guiltless and dejected stand before thy dreadfull Majesty guilty and trembling The name of a King of Caesar is justly tender and awfull the least whisper of an Usurpation or disturbance is entertained with a jealous care Pilate takes this intimation at the first bound Art thou then the King of the Jews He felt his own free-hold now touched it was time for him to stir Daniel's Weeks were now famously known to be near expiring Many arrogant and busie spirits as Judas of Galilee Theudas and that Aegyptian Seducer taking that advantage had raised severall Conspiracies set up new titles to the Crown gathered Forces to maintain their false claims Perhaps Pilate supposed some such business now on foot and therefore asks so curiously Art thou the King of the Jews He that was no less Wisedom then Truth thought it not best either to affirm or deny at once Sometimes it may be extremely prejudiciall to speak all truths To disclaim that Title suddenly which had been of old given him by the Prophets at his Birth by the Eastern Sages and now lately at his Procession by the acclaiming multitude had been injurious to himself to profess and challenge it absolutely had been unsafe and needlesly provoking By wise and just degrees therefore doth he so affirm this truth that he both satisfies the inquirer and takes off all perill and prejudice from his assertion Pilate shall know him a King but such a King as no King needs to fear as all Kings ought to acknowledge and adore My Kingdom is not of this world It is your mistaking O ye earthly Potentates that is guilty of your fears Herod hears of a King born and is troubled Pilate hears of a King of the Jews and is incensed Were ye not ignorant ye could not be jealous Had ye learned to distinguish of Kingdoms these suspicions would vanish There are Secular Kingdoms there are Spirituall neither of these trenches upon other your Kingdom is Secular Christ's is Spirituall both may both must stand together His Laws are Divine yours civil His Reign is eternall yours temporall the glory of his Rule is inward and stands in the Graces of Sanctification Love Peace Righteousness Joy in the Holy Ghost yours in outward pomp riches magnificence His Enemies are the Devil the World the Flesh yours are bodily usurpers and externall peace-breakers His Sword is the power of the Word
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
Passion other journies he measured on foot without noise or train this with a Princely equipage and loud acclamation Wherein yet O Saviour whether shall I more wonder at thy Majesty or thine Humility that Divine Majesty which lay hid under so humble appearance or that sincere Humility which veiled so great a glory Thou O Lord whose chariots are twenty thousand even thousands of Angels wouldst make choice of the silliest of beasts to carry thee in thy last and Royall progress How well is thy birth suited with thy triumph Even that very Ass whereon thou rodest was prophesied of neither couldst thou have made up those vaticall Predictions without this conveyance O glorious and yet homely pomp Thou wouldst not lose ought of thy right thou that wast a King wouldst be proclaimed so but that it might appear thy Kingdome was not of this world thou that couldst have commanded all worldly magnificence thoughtest fit to abandon it In stead of the Kings of the earth who reigning by thee might have been imployed in thine attendence the people are thine heralds their homely garments are thy foot-cloath and carpets their green boughs the strewings of thy way those Palms which were wont to be born in the hands of them that triumph are strewed under the feet of thy beast It was thy greatness and honour to contemn those glories which worldly hearts were wont to admire Justly did thy Followers hold the best ornaments of the earth worthy of no better then thy treading upon neither could they ever account their garments so rich as when they had been trampled upon by thy carriage How happily did they think their backs disrobed for thy way How gladly did they spend their breath in acclaiming thee Hosanna to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. Where now are the great Masters of the Synagogue that had enacted the ejection of whosoever should confess Jesus to be the Christ Lo here bold and undaunted clients of the Messiah that dare proclaim him in the publick road in the open streets In vain shall the impotent enemies of Christ hope to suppress his glory as soon shall they with their hand hide the face of the Sun from shining to the world as withhold the beams of his Divine truth from the eyes of men by their envious opposition In spite of all Jewish malignity his Kingdome is confessed applauded blessed O thou fairer then the children of men in thy Majesty ride on prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things In this Princely and yet poor and despicable pomp doth our Saviour enter into the famous City of Jerusalem Jerusalem noted of old for the seat of Kings Priests Prophets of Kings for there was the throne of David of Priests for there was the Temple of Prophets for there they delivered their errands and left their bloud Neither know I whether it were more wonder for a Prophet to perish out of Jerusalem or to be safe there Thither would Jesus come as a King as a Priest as a Prophet acclaimed as a King teaching the people and foretelling the wofull vastation of it as a Prophet and as a Priest taking possession of his Temple and vindicating it from the foul profanations of Jewish Sacrilege Oft before had he come to Jerusalem without any remarkable change because without any semblance of State now that he gives some little glimpse of his Royalty the whole City was moved When the Sages of the East brought the first news of the King of the Jews Herod was troubled and all Jerusalem with him and now that the King of the Jews comes himself though in so mean a port there is a new commotion The silence and obscurity of Christ never troubles the world he may be an underling without any stir but if he do but put forth himself never so little to bear the least sway amongst men now their bloud is up the whole City is moved Neither is it otherwise in the private oeconomy of the Soul O Saviour whilst thou dost as it were hide thy self and lie still in the heart and takest all terms contentedly from us we entertain thee with no other then a friendly welcome but when thou once beginnest to ruffle with our Corruptions and to exercise thy Spiritual power in the subjugation of our vile Affections now all is in a secret uproar all the angles of the heart are moved Although doubtless this commotion was not so much of tumult as of wonder As when some uncouth sight presents it self in a populous street men run and gaze and throng and inquire the feet the tongue the eyes walk one spectatour draws on another one asks and presses another the noise increases with the concourse each helps to stir up others expectation such was this of Jerusalem What means this strangeness Was not Jerusalem the Spouse of Christ Had he not chosen her out of all the earth Had he not begotten many children of her as the pledges of their love How justly maist thou now O Saviour complain with that mirrour of Patience My breath was grown strange to my own wife though I intreated her for the childrens sake of my own body Even of thee is that fulfilled which thy chosen Vessel said of thy Ministers Thou art made a gazing-stock to the world to Angels and to men As all the world was bound to thee for thine Incarnation and residence upon the face of the earth so especially Judaea to whose limits thou confinedst thy self and therein above all the rest three Cities Nazareth Capernaum Jerusalem on whom thou bestowedst the most time and cost of preaching and miraculous works Yet in all three thou receivedst not strange entertainment onely but hostile In Nazareth they would have cast thee down headlong from the Mount In Capernaum they would have bound thee In Jerusalem they crucified thee at last and now are amazed at thy presence Those places and persons that have the greatest helps and privileges afforded to them are not always the most answerable in the return of their thankfulness Christ's being amongst us doth not make us happy but his welcome Every day may we hear him in our streets and yet be as new to seek as these Citizens of Jerusalem Who is this Was it a question of applause or of contempt or of ignorance Applause of his abettours contempt of the Scribes and Pharisees ignorance of the multitude Surely his abettours had not been moved at this sight the Scribes and Pharisees had rather envied then contemned the multitude doubtless inquired seriously out of a desire of information Not that the Citizens of Jerusalem knew not Christ who was so ordinary a guest so noted a Prophet amongst them Questionless this question was asked of that part of the train which went before this Triumph whilst our Saviour was not yet in sight which ere long his presence had resolved It had been their duty
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
her travail have been destitute of lodging in the City of David Little did the Bethlehemites think what a Guest they refused else they would gladly have opened their doors to him who was able to open the gates of Heaven to them Now their Inhospitality is punishment enough to it self They have lost the honour and happiness of being Host to their God Even still O Blessed Saviour thou standest at our doors and knockest every motion of thy good Spirit tells us thou art there Now thou comest in thine own name and there thou standest whilst thy head is full of dew and thy locks wet with the drops of the night If we suffer carnal desires and worldly thoughts to take up the lodging of our Heart and revell within us whilst thou waitest upon our admission surely our judgement shall be so much the greater by how much better we know whom we have excluded What do we cry shame on the Bethlehemites whilst we are wilfully more churlish more unthankfull There is no room in my heart for the wonder at this Humility He for whom Heaven is too streight whom the Heaven of heavens cannot contain lies in the streight cabbin of the womb and when he would inlarge himself for the world is not allowed the room of an Inne The many mansions of Heaven were at his disposing the Earth was his and the fulness of it yet he suffers himself to be refused of a base Cottage and complaineth not What measure should discontent us wretched men when thou O God farest thus from thy creatures How should we learn both to want and abound from thee who abounding with the glory and riches of Heaven wouldst want a lodging in thy first welcome to the earth Thou camest to thine own and thy own received thee not How can it trouble us to be rejected of the world which is not ours What wonder is it if thy servants wandred abroad in sheep-skins and goat-skins destitute and afflicted when their Lord is denied harbour How should all the world blush at this indignity of Bethlehem He that came to save Men is sent for his first lodging to the Beasts The Stable is become his Inne the Cratch his Bed O strange Cradle of that great King which Heaven it self may envy O Saviour thou that wert both the Maker and Owner of Heaven of Earth couldst have made thee a Palace without hands couldst have commanded thee an empty room in those houses which thy creatures had made When thou didst but bid the Angels avoid their first place they fell down from Heaven like lightning and when in thy humbled estate thou didst but say I am he who was able to stand before thee How easie had it been for thee to have made place for thy self in the throngs of the stateliest Courts Why wouldst thou be thus homely but that by contemning worldly Glories thou mightest teach us to contemn them that thou mightest-sanctify Poverty to them whom thou calledst unto want that since thou who hadst the choice of all earthly conditions wouldst be born poor and despised those which must want out of necessity might not think their Poverty grievous Here was neither friend to entertain nor servant to attend nor place wherein to be attended onely the poor Beasts gave way to the God of all the world It is the great mystery of godliness that God was manifested in the flesh and seen of Angels but here which was the top of all wonders the very Beasts might see their Maker For those Spirits to see God in the flesh it was not so strange as for the brute creatures to see him who was the God of spirits He that would be led into the wilderness amongst wild beasts to be tempted would come into the house of beasts to be born that from the height of his Divine Glory his Humiliation might be the greater How can we be abased low enough for thee O Saviour that hast thus neglected thy self for us That the visitation might be answerable to the homeliness of the place attendents provision who shall come to congratulate his birth but poor Shepherds The Kings of the earth rest at home and have no summons to attend him by whom they reign God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the mighty In an obscure time the night unto obscure men Shepherds doth God manifest the light of his Son by glorious Angels It is not our meanness O God that can exclude us from the best of thy mercies yea thus far dost thou respect persons that thou hast put down the mighty and exalted them of low degree If these Shepherds had been snorting in their beds they had no more seen Angels nor heard news of their Saviour then their neighbours Their vigilancy is honoured with this heavenly Vision Those who are industrious in any calling are capable of farther Blessings whereas the Idle are fit for nothing but Temptation No less then a whole Chore of Angels are worthy to sing the Hymn of Glory to God for the Incarnation of his Son What joy is enough for us whose nature he took and whom he came to restore by his Incarnation If we had the tongues of Angels we could not raise this note high enough to the praise of our glorious Redeemer No sooner do the Shepherds hear the news of a Saviour then they run to Bethlehem to seek him Those that left their beds to tend their flocks leave their flocks to enquire after their Saviour No earthly thing is too dear to be forsaken for Christ If we suffer any worldly occasion to stay us from Bethlehem we care more for our sheep then our souls It is not possible that a faithfull heart should hear where Christ is and not labour to the sight to the fruition of him Where art thou O Saviour but at home in thine own house in the assembly of thy Saints Where art thou to be found but in thy Word and Sacraments Yea there thou seekest for us if there we haste not to seek for thee we are worthy to want thee worthy that our want of thee here should make us want the presence of thy face for ever IV. The Sages and the Star THE Shepherds and the Cratch accorded well yet even they saw nothing which they might not contemn neither was there any of those Shepherds that seemed not more like a King then that King whom they came to see But O the Divine Majesty that shined in this Basenesse There lies the Babe in the Stable crying in the Manger whom the Angels came down from Heaven to proclaim whom the Sages come from the East to adore whom an heavenly Star notifies to the world that now men might see that Heaven and Earth serves him that neglected himself Those Lights that hang low are not far seen but those that are high placed are equally seen in the remotest distances Thy light O Saviour was no lesse then heavenly The East saw that which Bethlehem might
then native subjection yet where God did countermand Herod there could be no question whom to obey They say not We are in a strange Country Herod may meet with us it can be no less then death to mock him in his own territories but chearfully put themselves upon the way and trust God with the success When men command with God we must obey men for God and God in men when against him the best obedience is to deny obedience and to turn our backs upon Herod The Wise men are safely arrived in the East and fill the world full of expectation as themselves are full of wonder Joseph and Mary are returned with the Babe to that Jerusalem where the Wise men had inquired for his Birth The City was doubtless still full of that rumour and little thinks that he whom they talk of was so near them From thence they are at least in their way to Nazareth where they purpose their abode God prevents them by his Angel and sends them for safety into Egypt Joseph was not wont to be so full of Visions It was not long since the Angel appeared unto him to justifie the innocency of the Mother and the Deity of the Son now he appears for the preservation of both and a preservation by flight Could Joseph now chuse but think Is this the King that must save Israel that needs to be saved by me If he be the Son of God how is he subject to the violence of men How is he Almighty that must save himself by flight or how must he flie to save himself out of that land which he comes to save But faithful Joseph having been once tutoured by the Angel and having heard what the Wise men said of the Star what Simeon and Anna said in the Temple labours not so much to reconcile his thoughts as to subject them and as one that knew it safer to suppress doubts then to assoil them can believe what he understands not and can wonder where he cannot comprehend Oh strange condition of the King of all the world He could not be born in a baser estate yet even this he cannot enjoy with safety There was no room for him in Bethlehem there will be no room for him in Judaea He is no sooner come to his own then he must flie from them that he may save them he must avoid them Had it not been easie for thee O Saviour to have acquit thy self from Herod a thousand ways What could an arm of flesh have done against the God of spirits What had it been for thee to have sent Herod five years sooner unto his place what to have commanded fire from heaven on those that should have come to apprehend thee or to have bidden the earth to receive them alive whom she meant to swallow dead We suffer misery because we must thou because thou wouldest The same will that brought thee from Heaven into earth sends thee from Jewry to Egypt As thou wouldst be born mean and miserable so thou wouldst live subject to humane vexations that thou who hast taught us how good it is to bear the yoke even in our youth mightst sanctifie to us early afflictions Or whether O Father since it was the purpose of thy wisedom to manifest thy Son by degrees unto the world was it thy will thus to hide him for a time under our infirmity And what other is our condition we are no sooner born thine then we are persecuted If the Church travail and bring forth a male she is in danger of the Dragons streams What do the Members complain of the same measure which was offered to the Head Both our Births are accompanied with Tears Even of those whose mature age is full of trouble yet the infancy is commonly quiet but here life and toil began together O Blessed Virgin even already did the sword begin to pierce thy Soul Thou which wert forced to bear thy Son in thy womb from Nazareth to Bethlehem must now bear him in thy arms from Jewry into Egypt Yet couldst thou not complain of the way whilest thy Saviour was with thee His presence alone was able to make the Stable a Temple Egypt a Paradise the way more pleasing then rest But whither then O whither dost thou carry that blessed burthen by which thy self and the world are upholden To Egypt the Slaughter-house of God's people the Furnace of Israel's ancient affliction the Sink of the world Out of Egypt have I called my Son saith God That thou calledst thy Son out of Egypt O God is no marvell It is a marvell that thou calledst him into Egypt but that we know all earths are thine and all places and men are like figures upon a table such as thy disposition makes them What a change is here Israel the first-born of God flies out of Egypt into the promised Land of Judaea Christ the first-born of all creatures flies from Judaea into Egypt Egypt is become the Sanctuary Judaea the Inquisition-house of the Son of God He that is every where the same makes all places alike to his He makes the fiery Furnace a Gallery of pleasure the Lions den an house of defence the Whales belly a lodging-chamber Egypt an harbour He flees that was able to preserve himself from danger to teach us how lawfully we may flee from those dangers we cannot avoid otherwise It is a thankless fortitude to offer our throat unto the knife He that came to die for us fled for his own preservation and hath bid us follow him When they persecute you in one City flee into another We have but the use of our lives and we are bound to husband them to the best advantage of God and his Church God hath made us not as Butts to be perpetually shot at but as the marks of Rovers movable as the wind and sun may best serve It was warrant enough for Joseph and Mary that God commands them to flee yet so familiar is God grown with his approved servants that he gives them the reason of his commanded flight For Herod will seek the young child to destroy him What wicked men will do what they would doe is known unto God beforehand He that is so infinitely wise to know the designs of his enemies before they are could as easily prevent them that they might not be but he lets them run on in their own courses that he may fetch glory to himself out of their wickedness Good Joseph having this charge in the night staies not till the morning no sooner had God said Arise then he starts up and sets forward It was not diffidence but obedience that did so hasten his departure The charge was direct the business important He dares not linger for the light but breaks his rest for the journey and taking advantage of the dark departs toward Egypt How knew he this occasion would abide any delay We cannot be too speedy in the execution of Gods commands we may be too late
pierce Heaven Neither doth her vehemence so much argue her Faith as doth her compellation O Lord thou Son of David What Proselyte what Disciple could have said more O blessed Syrophoenician who taught thee this abstract of Divinity What can we Christians confess more then the Deity the Humanity and the Messiahship of our glorious Saviour his Deity as Lord his Humanity as a Son his Messiahship as the Son of David Of all the famous progenitours of Christ two are singled out by an eminence David and Abraham a King a Patriarch And though the Patriarch were first in time yet the King is first in place not so much for the dignity of the person as the excellence of the promise which as it was both later and fresher in memory so more honourable To Abraham was promised multitude and blessing of seed to David perpetuity of dominion So as when God promiseth not to destroy his people it is for Abraham's sake when not to extinguish the Kingdome it is for David's sake Had she said the Son of Abraham she had not come home to this acknowledgment Abraham is the father of the faithfull David of the Kings of Juda and Israel There are many faithfull there is but one King So as in this title she doth proclaim him the perpetual King of his Church the Rod or Flower which should come from the root of Jesse the true and onely Saviour of the world Whoso would come unto Christ to purpose must come in the right style apprehending a true God a true Man a true God and Man any of these severed from other makes Christ an Idol and our prayers sin Being thus acknowledged what suit is so fit for him as mercy Have mercy on me It was her Daughter that was tormented yet she says Have mercy on me Perhaps her possessed child was senseless of her misery the parent feels both her sorrow and her own As she was a good woman so a good mother Grace and good nature have taught her to appropriate the afflictions of this divided part of her own flesh It is not in the power of another skin to sever the interest of our own loins or womb We find some Fowls that burn themselves whilst they endeavour to blow out the fire from their young And even Serpents can receive their brood into their mouth to shield them from danger No creature is so unnatural as the reasonable that hath put off affection On me therefore in mine for my daughter is grievously vexed with a Devil It was this that sent her to Christ It was this that must incline Christ to her I doubt whether she had inquired after Christ if she had not been vexed with her Daughter's spirit Our afflictions are as Benhadad's best counsellours that sent him with a cord about his neck to the mercifull King of Israel These are the files and whetstones that set an edge on our Devotions without which they grow dull and ineffectual Neither are they stronger motives to our suit then to Christ's mercy We cannot have a better spokesman unto God then our own misery that alone sues and pleads and importunes for us This which sets off men whose compassion is finite attracts God to us Who can plead discouragements in his access to the throne of grace when our wants are our forcible advocates All our worthiness is in a capable misery All Israel could not example the faith of this Canaanite yet she was thus tormented in her Daughter It is not the truth or strength of our Faith that can secure us from the outward and bodily vexations of Satan against the inward and spiritual that can and will prevail It is no more antidote against the other then against fevers and dropsies How should it when as it may fall out that these sufferings may be profitable and why should we expect that the love of our God shall yield to fore-lay any benefit to the Soul He is an ill patient that cannot distinguish betwixt an affliction and the evil of affliction When the messenger of Satan buffets us it is enough that God hath said My grace is sufficient for thee Millions were in Tyre and Sidon whose persons whose children were untouched with that tormenting hand I hear none but this faithfull Woman say My daughter is grievously vexed of the Devil The worst of bodily afflictions are an insufficient proof of Divine displeasure She that hath most grace complains of most discomfort Who would now expect any other then a kind answer to so pious and faithfull a petition And behold he answered her not a word O Holy Saviour we have oft found cause to wonder at thy words never till now at thy silence A miserable suppliant cries and sues whilst the God of mercies is speechless He that comforts the afflicted adds affliction to the comfortless by a willing disrespect What shall we say then is the fountain of mercy dried up O Saviour couldst thou but hear She did not murmur not whisper but cry out couldst thou but pity but regard her that was as good as she was miserable If thy ears were open could thy bowels be shut Certainly it was thou that didst put it into the heart into the mouth of this woman to ask and to ask thus of thy self She could never have said O Lord thou Son of David but from thee but by thee None calleth Jesus the Lord but by the Holy Ghost Much more therefore didst thou hear the words of thine own making and well wert thou pleased to hear what thou thoughtest good to forbear to answer It was thine own grace that sealed up thy lips Whether for the trial of her patience and perseverance for silence carried a semblance of neglect and a willing neglect lays strong siege to the best fort of the Soul Even calm tempers when they have been stirred have bewrayed impetuousness of passion If there be any dregs in the bottom of the glass when the water is shaken they will be soon seen Or whether for the more sharpning of her desires and raising of her zealous importunity Our holy longings are increased with delays It whets our appetite to be held fasting Or whether for the more sweetning of the blessing by the difficulty or stay of obtaining The benefit that comes with ease is easily contemned Long and eager pursuit endears any favour Or whether for the ingaging of his Disciples in so charitable a suit Or whether for the wise avoidance of exception from the captious Jews Or lastly for the drawing on of an holy and imitable pattern of faithfull perseverance and to teach us not to measure God's hearing of our suit by his present answer or his present answer by our own sense Whilst our weakness expects thy words thy wisedom resolves upon thy silence Never wert thou better pleased to hear the acclamation of Angels then to hear this woman say O Lord thou Son of David yet silence is thy answer When we have made our prayers it is