Sidor som bilder
PDF
ePub

to Beelzebub; the beholders shall now see whence he expects and derives his power, and shall by him learn whence to expect and hope for all success. The heart and the eye must go together: he, that would have ought to do with God, must be sequestered and lifted up from earth.

His tongue seconds his eye; "Father." Nothing more stuck in the stomach of the Jews, than that Christ called himself the Son of God; this was imputed to him for a blasphemy, worthy of stones. How seasonably is this word spoken in the hearing of these Jews, in whose sight he will be presently approved so! How can ye now, O ye cavillers, except at that title which ye shall see irrefragably justified? Well may he call God Father, that can raise the dead out of the grave. In vain shall ye snarl at the style, when ye are convinced of the effect.

I hear of no prayer, but a thanks for hearing. While thou saidst nothing, O Saviour, how doth thy Father hear thee? Was it not with thy Father and thee, as it was with thee and Moses? Thou saidst, "Let me alone, Moses," when he spake not. Thy will was thy prayer.

Words

express our hearts to men, thoughts to God. Well didst thou know, out of the self-sameness of thy will with thy Father's, that if thou didst but think in thine heart that Lazarus should rise, he was now raised. It was not for thee to pray vocally and audibly, lest those captious hearers should say, thou didst all by entreaty, nothing by power. Thy thanks overtake thy desires; ours require time and distance: our thanks arise from the echo of our prayers resounding from heaven to our hearts; thou, because thou art at once in earth and heaven, and knowest the grant to be of equal paces with the request, most justly thankest in praying.

Now ye cavilling Jews are thinking straight, Is there

such distance betwixt the Father and the Son? is it so rare a thing for the Son to be heard, that he pours out his thanks for it as a blessing unusual? Do ye not now see that he, who made your heart, knows it, and anticipates your fond thoughts with the same breath? "I knew that thou hearest me always, but I said this for their sakes, that they might believe."

Merciful Saviour, how can we enough admire thy goodness, who makest our belief the scope and drift of thy doctrine and actions! Alas! what wert thou the better, if they

[BOOK IV. believed thee sent from God? what wert thou the worse if they believed it not? Thy perfection and glory stand not upon the slippery terms of our approbation or dislike; but is real in thyself, and that infinite, without possibility of our increase or diminution. We, we only are they that have either the gain or loss in thy receipt or rejection; yet so dost thou affect our belief, as if it were more thine advantage than ours.

O Saviour, while thou spakest to thy Father, thou liftedst up thine eyes; now thou art to speak unto dead Lazarus, thou liftedst up thy voice, and criedst aloud, “Lazarus, come forth." Was it that the strength of the voice might answer to the strength of the affection? since we faintly require what we care not to obtain, and vehemently utter what we earnestly desire: was it, that the greatness of the voice might answer to the greatness of the work? was it, that the hearers might be witnesses of what words were used in so miraculous an act? no magical incantations, but authoritative and divine commands; was it to signify, that Lazarus' soul was called from far? the speech must be loud that shall be heard in another world: was it in relation to the estate of the body of Lazarus, whom thou hadst reported to sleep? since those that are in a deep and dead sleep cannot be awaked without a loud call or was it in a representation of that loud voice of the last trumpet, which shall sound into all graves, and raise all flesh from their dust?

Even so still, Lord, when thou wouldst raise a soul from the death of sin, and grave of corruption, no easy voice will serve. Thy strongest commands, thy loudest denunciations of judgments, the shrillest and sweetest promulgations of thy mercies, are but enough.

How familiar a word is this, "Lazarus, come forth!" no other than he was wont to use while they lived together. Neither doth he say, Lazarus, revive; but, as if he supposed him already living, "Lazarus, come forth :" to let them know, that those who are dead to us, are to and with him alive; yea, in a more entire and feeling society, than while they carried their clay about them. Why do I fear that separation which shall more unite me to my Saviour?

[ocr errors]

Neither was the word more familiar than commanding, Lazarus, come forth." Here is no suit to his Father, no

adjuration to the deceased, but a flat and absolute injunction, "Come forth." O Saviour, that is the voice that I shall once hear sounding into the bottom of my grave, and raising me up out of my dust; that is the voice that shall pierce the rocks and divide the mountains, and fetch up the dead out of the lowest depths. Thy word made all, thy word shall repair all. Hence, all ye diffident fears; he whom I trust is omnipotent.

It was the Jewish fashion to enwrap the corpse in linen, to tie the hands and feet, and to cover the face of the dead. The fall of man, besides weakness, brought shame upon him. Ever since, even while he lives, the whole body is covered; but the face, because some sparks of that extinct majesty remain there, is wont to be left open. In death, all those poor remainders being gone, and leaving deformity and ghastliness in the room of them, the face is covered also.

There lies Lazarus bound in double fetters: one almighty word hath loosed both, and now "he that was bound came forth." He, whose power could not be hindered by the chains of death, cannot be hindered by linen bands; he, that gave life, gave motion, gave direction; he, that guided the soul of Lazarus into the body, guided the body of Lazarus without his eyes, moved the feet without the full liberty of his regular paces: no doubt, the same power slackened those swathing bands of death, that the feet might have some little scope to move, though not with that freedom that followed after. Thou didst not only, O Saviour, raise the body of Lazarus, but the faith of the beholders. They cannot deny him dead, whom they saw rising; they see the signs of death, with the proofs of life; those very swathes convinced him to be the man that was raised. Thy less miracle confirms the greater; both confirm the faith of the beholders. O clear and irrefragable example of our resuscitation! Say now, ye shameless Sadducees, with what face can ye deny the resurrection of the body, when ye see Lazarus, after four days' death, rising up out of his grave? And if Lazarus did thus start up at the bleeting of this Lamb of God, that was now every day preparing for the slaughter-house, how shall the dead be roused up out of their graves, by the roaring of that glorious and immortal Lion, whose voice shall shake the powers of heaven, and move the very foundations of the earth!

[blocks in formation]

With what strange amazedness do we think that Martha and Mary, the Jews, and the disciples, looked to see Lazarus come forth in his winding sheet, shackled with his linen fetters, and walk towards them? doubtless fear and horror strove in them, whether should be for the time more predominant. We love our friends dearly; but to see them again after their known death, and that in the very robes of the grave, must needs set up the hair in a kind of uncouth rigour. And now, though it had been most easy for him, that brake the adamantine fetters of death, to have broke in pieces those linen ligaments wherewith his raised Lazarus was incumbered, yet he will not do it but by their hands. He that said, "Remove the stone," said, "Loose Lazarus." He will not have us expect his immediate help, in that we can do for ourselves. It is both a laziness, and a presumptuous tempting of God, to look for an extraordinary and supernatural help from God, where he hath enabled us with common aid.

What strange salutations do we think there were betwixt Lazarus and Christ, that had raised him; betwixt Lazarus and his sisters, and neighbours, and friends! what amazed looks! what unusual compliments! for Lazarus was himself at once: here was no leisure of degrees to reduce him to his wonted perfection, neither did he stay to rub his eyes, and stretch his benumbed limbs, nor take time to put off that dead sleep wherewith he had been seized; but instantly he is both alive, and fresh, and vigorous; if they do but let him go, he walks so as if he had ailed nothing, and receives and gives mutual gratulations. I leave them entertaining each other with glad embraces, with discourses of reciprocal admiration, with praises and adorations of that God and Saviour, that had fetched him into life.

CONTEMPLATION XXV.

Christ's Procession to the Temple.

NEVER did our Saviour take so much state upon him as now, that he was going towards his passion: other journeys he measured on foot, without noise or train; this with a princely equipage and loud acclamation. Wherein yet, O Saviour, 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 royal 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 vatical 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 kingdom was not of this world, thou that couldst have commanded all worldly magnificence, thoughtst fit to abandon it.

Instead of the kings of the earth, who, reigning by thee, might have been employed in thine attendance, the people are thine heralds; their homely garments are thy foot-cloth and carpets; their green boughs the strewings of thy way; those palms, which were wont to be borne 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 than 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 back 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 shouldconfess Jesus to be the Christ? Lo, here, bold and undaunted clients of the Messiah, that dare proclaim him in the public 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 kingdom is confessed, applauded, blessed.

"O thou fairer than the children of men, in thy majesty ride 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

« FöregåendeFortsätt »