to regard, and yet to smother it. Concealment doth not remedy, but aggravate sorrow. That with the council of not weeping, therefore, she might see cause of not weeping, his hand seconds his tongue. He arrests the coffin, and frees the prisoner: "Young man, I say unto thee, arise." The Lord of life and death speaks with command. No finite power could have said so without presumption, or with success. That is the voice that shall one day call up our vanished bodies from those elements into which they are resolved, and raise them out of their dust. Neither sea, nor death, nor hell, can offer to detain their dead, when he charges them to be delivered. Incredulous nature! | what, dost thou shrink at the possibility of a resurrection, when the God of nature undertakes it! It is no more hard for that Almighty word, which gave being unto all things, to say, "Let them be repaired," than, "Let them be made." I do not see our Saviour stretching himself upon the dead corpse, as Elias and Elisha upon the sons of the Shunamite and Sareptan, nor kneeling down and pray. ing by the bier, as Peter did to Dorcas; but I hear him so speaking to the dead as if he were alive, and so speaking to the dead, that by the word he makes him alive: "I say unto thee, arise." Death hath no power to bid that man lie still, whom the Son of God bids arise: immediately he that was dead sat up. So, at the sound of the last trumpet, by the power of the same voice, we shall arise out of the dust, and stand up glorious: This mortal shall put on immortality, this corruptible incorruption." This body shall not be buried but sown, and at our day shall therefore spring up with a plentiful increase of glory. How comfortless, how desperate, should be our lying down, if it were not for this assurance of rising! And now, behold, lest our weak faith should stagger at the assent to so great a difficulty, he hath already, by what he hath done, given us tastes of what he will do. The Power that can raise one man can raise a thousand, a million, a world: no power can raise one man but that which is infinite, and that which is infinite admits of no limitation. Under the Old Testament, God raised one by Elias, another by Elisha living, a third by Elisha dead: by the hand of the Mediator of the New Testament, he raised here the son of the widow, the daughter of Jairus, Lazarus; and, in attendance of his own resurrection, he made a gaol-delivery of holy prisoners at Jerusalem. He raises the daughter of Jairus from her bed, this widow's son from his coffin, Lazarus from his grave, the dead saints of Jerusalem from their rottenness; that it might appear no degree of death can hinder the efficacy of his overruling command. He that keeps the keys of death, can not only make way for himself through the common hall and outer-rooms, but through the inwardest and most reserved closets of darkness. Methinks I see this young man, who was thus miraculously awaked from his deadly sleep, wiping and rubbing those eyes that had been shut up in death, and descending from the bier, wrapping his winding-sheet about his loins, cast himself down in a passionate thankfulness at the feet of his Almighty Restorer, adoring that divine power which had commanded his soul back again to her forsaken lodging! and though I hear not what he said, yet, I dare say, they were words of praise and wonder, which his returned soul first uttered. It was the mother whom our Saviour first pitied in this act, not the son, who now, forced from his quiet rest, must twice pass through the gates of death. As for her sake, therefore, he was raised, so to her hands was he delivered, that she might acknowledge that soul given to her, not to the possessor. Who cannot feel the amazement and ecstasy of joy that was in this revived mother, when her son now salutes her from out of another world, and both receives and gives gratulations of his new life! How suddenly were all the tears of that mournful train dried up with a joyful astonishment! how soon is that funeral banquet turned into a new birth-day feast! what striving was here to salute the late carcass of their returned neighbour! what awful and admiring looks were cast upon that Lord of life, who, seeming homely, was approved omnipotent! how gladly did every tongue celebrate both the work and the Author! "A great prophet is raised up amongst us, and God hath visited his people." A prophet was the highest name they could find for him, whom they saw like themselves in shape, above themselves in power. They were not yet acquainted with God manifested in the flesh. This miracle might well have assured them of more than a prophet; but he that raised the dead man from the bier, would not suddenly raise these dead hearts from the grave of infidelity. They shall see reason enough to know, that the Prophet who was raised up to them, was the God that now visited them, and at last should do as much for them, as he had done for the young man, raise them from death to life, from dust to glory. CONT. II.1 THE RULER'S SON CURED. THE bounty of God so exceedeth man's, that there is a contrariety in the exercise of it: we shut our hands, because we opened them: God therefore opens his, because he hath opened them. God's mercies are as comfortable in their issue as in themselves. Seldom ever do blessings go alone: where our Saviour supplied the bridegroom's He wine, there he heals the ruler's son. had not, in all these coasts of Galilee, done "To him that hath any miracle but here. shall be given." We do not find Christ oft attended with nobility; here he is. It was some great peer, or some noted courtier, that was now a suitor to him for his dying son. Earthly greatness is no defence against afflictions. We men forbear the mighty; disease and death know no faces of lords or monarchs: could these be bribed, they would be too rich. Why should we grudge not to be privileged, when we see there is no spare of the greatest? 443 have cured him absent; "ere he die," as if It is good reason that he should challenge the right of prescribing to us, who are every way his own: it is presumption in us to stint him unto our forms. An expert workman cannot abide to be taught by a novice; how much less shall the all-wise God endure to be directed by his creature! This is more than if the patient should take upon him to give a recipe to the physician. That God would give us grace, is a beseeming suit; but to say, Give it me by prosperity, is a saucy motive. As there is faithfulness in desiring the end, so modesty and patience in referring the means to the author. In spiritual things God hath acquainted us with the means whereby he will work, even his own sacred ordinances: upon these, because they have his own promise, we may call absolutely for a blessing; in all others, there is no reason that beggars should be choosers. He who doth whatsoever he will, must do it how he will: it is for us to receive, not to ap This noble ruler listens after Christ's The most eminent return into Galilee. amongst men will be glad to hearken after Christ in their necessity. Happy was it for him that his son was sick: he had not else been acquainted with his Saviour; his soul had continued sick of ignorance and unbelief. Why else doth our good God send us pain, losses, opposition, but that he may be sought to? Are we afflicted? whither should we go but to Cana, to seek Christ? whither but to the Cana of heaven, where our water of sorrow is turned to the wine of gladness? to that omnipotent Phy-point. sician who healeth all our infirmities, that "It is good for me that we may once say, I was afflicted?" It was but a day's journey from Capernaum to Cana; thence hither did this courtier come for the cure of his son's fever. What pains even the greatest can be content to take for bodily health! no way is long, no labour tedious to the desirous. Our souls are sick of a spiritual fever, labouring| under the cold fit of infidelity, and the hot fit of self-love, and we sit still at home, and see them languish unto death. This ruler was neither faithless nor faithful: had he been quite faithless, he had not taken such pains to come to Christ; had he been faithful, he had not made this suit to Christ when he was come: "Come do wn, and heal my son, ere he die." "Come down," as if Christ could not 66 He, who came to complain of his son's Except ye sickness, hears of his own: see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." This nobleman was, as is like, of Capernaum: there had Christ often preached; there was one of his chief residences. Either this man had heard our Saviour oft, or might have done: yet because Christ's iniracles came to him only by hearsay, (for as yet we find none at all wrought where he preached most) therefore the man believes not enough, but so speaks to Christ as to some ordinary physician: "Come down, and heal." It was the common disease of the Jews, incredulity, which no receipt could heal but wonders: "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks signs." Had they not been wilfully graceless, there was already proof enough of the Messias the miraculous conception and life of the forerunner, Zechariah's dumb. ness, the attestation of angels, the appari- | than the ruler's greatness; and that faithful tion of the star, the journey of the sages, man's servant hath more regard than this the vision of the shepherds, the testimonies great man's son. of Anna and Simeon, the prophecies fulfilled, the voice from heaven at his baptism, the divine words that he spake, and yet they must have all made up with miracles; which, though he be not unwilling to give at his own times, yet he thinks much to be tied unto theirs. Not to believe without signs, was a sign of stubborn hearts. It was a foul fault and a dangerous one. "Ye will not believe." What is it that shall condemn the world but unbelief? what can condemn us without it? No sin can condemn the repentant. Repentance is a fruit of faith where true faith is, then, there can be no condemnation, as there can be nothing but condemnation without it. How much more foul in a noble Capernaite, that had heard the sermons of so divine a teacher! The greater light we have, the more shame it is for us to stumble. O what shall become of us that reel and fall in the clearest sunshine that ever looked forth upon any church! Be merciful to our sins, O God, and say any thing of us, rather than "Ye will not believe !" Our Saviour tells him of his unbelief. He feels not himself sick of that disease: all his mind is on his dying son. As easily do we complain of bodily griefs, as we are hardly affected with spiritual. O the meekness and mercy of this Lamb of God! When we would have looked that he should have punished this suitor for not believing, he condescends to him, that he may believe : "Go thy way, thy son liveth." If we should measure our hopes by our own worthiness, there were no expectation of blessings; but if we shall measure them by his bounty and compasion, there can be no doubt of prevailing. As some tender mother, that gives the breast to her unquiet child instead of the rod, so deals he with our perversenesses. How God differences men, according to no other conditions than of their faith! The centurion's servant was sick, the ruler's son. The centurion doth not sue unto Christ to come; only says, My servant is sick of a palsy:" Christ answers him, "I will come and heal him." The ruler sues unto Christ, that he would come and heal his son: Christ will not go; only says, Go thy way, thy son lives." Outward things carry no respect with God. The image of that Divine Majesty shining inwardly in the graces of the soul, is that which wins love from him in the meanest estate. The centurion's faith, therefore, could do more The ruler's request was, "Come and heal:" Christ's answer was, "Go thy way thy son lives." Our merciful Saviour meets those in the end whom he crosses in the way. How sweetly doth he correct our prayers, and, while he doth not give us what we ask, gives us better than we asked. Justly doth he forbear to go down with this ruler, lest he should confirm him in an opinion of measuring his power by conceits of locality and distance: but he doth that in absence, for which his presence was required, with a repulse: "Thy son liveth," giving a greater demonstration of his omnipotency than was craved. How oft doth he not hear to our will, that he may hear us to our advantage! The chosen vessel would be rid of temptations; he hears of a supply of grace: the sick man asks release, receives patience; life, and receives glory. Let us ask what we think best; let him give what he knows best. With one word doth Christ heal two patients, the son and the father; the son's fever, the father's unbelief. That operative word of our Saviour was not without the intention of a trial. Had not the ruler gone home satisfied with that intimation of his son's life and recovery, neither of them had been blessed with success. Now the news of performance meets him one half of the way: and he that believed somewhat ere he came, and more when he went, grew to more faith in the way; and, when he came home, enlarged his faith to all the skirts of his family. A weak faith may be true, but a true faith is growing: he that boasts of a full stature in the first moment of his assent, may presume, but doth not believe. Great men cannot want clients: their example sways some, their authority more; they cannot go to either of the other worlds alone. In vain do they pretend power over others, who labour not to draw their families unto God. CONTEMPLATION III.—THE DUMB DEVIL EJECTED. THAT the Prince of our Peace might approve his victories perfect, wheresoever he met with the prince of darkness he foiled him, he ejected him. He found him in heaven: thence did he throw him headlong, and verified his prophet, "I have cast thee out of mine holy mountain." And if the devils left their first habitation, it was be cause, being devils, they could not keep it. Their estate indeed they might have kept, and did not; their habitation they would nave kept, and might not. "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer!" He found him in the heart of man; for in that closet of God did the evil spirit, after his exile from heaven, shroud himself: sin gave him possession, which he kept with a willing violence: thence he casts him by his word and Spirit. He found him tyrannizing in the bodies of some possessed men, and, with power, commands the unclean spirits to depart. This act is for no hand but his. When a strong man keeps possession, none but a stronger can remove him. In voluntary things, the strongest may yield to the weakest, Samson to a Delilah; but in violent, ever the mightiest carries it. A spiritual nature must needs be in rank above a bodily; neither can any power be above a spirit, but the God of spirits. bodies. This devil was not therefore dumb As it is in bodily diseases, that they do not infect us alike; some seize upon the humours, others upon the spirits; some assault the brain, others the heart or lungs; so, in bodily and spiritual possessions, in some the evil spirits take away their senses, in some their limbs, in some their inward faculties; like as, spiritually, they affect to move us unto several sins: one to lust, another to covetousness or ambition, another to cruelty; and their names have distinguished them according to these various effects. This was a dumb devil, which yet had possessed not the tongue only of this man, but his ear; not that only, but, as it seems, his eyes too. O subtile and tyrannous spirit, that obstructs all ways to the soul, that keeps out all means of grace, both from the door and windows of the heart; yea, that stops up all passages, whether of ingress or egress; of ingress at the eye or ear, of egress at the mouth, that there might be no capacity of redress! What holy use is there of our tongue, but to praise our Maker, to confess our sins, to inform our brethren? How rife is this dumb devil everywhere, while he stops the mouths of Christians from these useful and necessary duties! No other ways is it in the mental possession. Wherever sin is, there Satan is: as, on the contrary, "whosoever is born of God, the seed of God remains in him." That evil one not only is, but rules in the sons of disobedience: in vain shall we try to eject him, but by the divine power of the Redeemer: "For this cause the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil." Do we find ourselves haunted with the familiar devils of pride, self-love, sensual desires, unbelief? None but thou, O Son of the everliving God, can free our bosoms of these hellish guests: "O cleanse thou me from my secret sins, and keep me, that presumptuous sins prevail not over me.' O Saviour, it is no paradox to say, that thou castest out more devils now, than thou didst while thou wert upon earth. It was thy word, "When I am lifted up, I will draw all men unto me.' Satan weighs down at the feet; thou pullest at the head, yea, at the heart. In every conversion which thou workest, there is a dispossession. Convert me, O Lord, and I shall be converted. I know thy means are now no other than ordinary. If we ex-apprehension, by the expression of man? pect to be dispossessed by miracle, it would be a miracle if ever we were dispossessed. O let thy gospel have the perfect work in me; so only shall I be delivered from the powers of darkness. Nothing can be said to be dumb, but what naturally speaks; nothing can speak naturally, but what hath the instruments of speech: which, because spirits want, they can no other ways speak vocally, than as they take voices to themselves, in taking For what end hath man those two privileges above his fellow-creatures, reason and speech; but that, as by the one he may conceive of the great works of his Maker, which the rest cannot, so by the other he may express what he conceives to the honour of the Creator, both of them and himself? And why are all other creatures said to praise God, and bidden to praise him, but because they do it by the "If the heavens declare the glory of God," how do they it, but to the eyes, and by the tongue of that man for whom they were made? It is no small honour whereof the envious spirit shall rob his Maker, if he can close up the mouth of his only rational and vocal creature, and turn the best of his workmanship into a dumb idol, that hath a mouth and speaks not. Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise." Praise is not more necessary than complaint; praise of God, than complaint of ourselves, whether to God or men. The only amends we can make to God, when we have not had the grace to avoid sin, is to confess the sin we have not avoided. This is the sponge that wipes out all the blots and blurs of our lives. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." That cunning manslayer knows there is no way to purge the sick soul but upward, by casting out the vicious humour wherewith it is clogged; and therefore holds the lips close, that the heart may not disburden itself by so wholesome evacuation. "When I kept silence, my bones consumed: for day and night thy hand, O Lord, was heavy upon me; my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. O let me confess against myself my wickedness unto thee, that thou mayest forgive the punishment of my sin." We have a tongue for God, when we praise him; for ourselves, when we pray and confess; for our brethren, when we speak the truth for their information, which, if we hold back in unrighteourness, we yield unto that dumb devil. Where do we not see that accursed spirit? he is on the bench, when the mute or partial judge speaks not for truth and innocence; he is in the pulpit, when the prophets of God smother, or halve, or adulterate the message of their Master; he is at the bar, when irreligious jurors dare lend an oath to fear, to hope, to gain; he is in the market, when godless chapmen, for their penny, sell the truth and their soul; he is in the common conversation of men, when the tongue belies the heart, flatters the guilty, baulketh reproofs even in the foulest crimes. O Thou, who only art stronger than that strong one, cast him out of the hearts and mouths of men!" It is time for thee, Lord, to work, for they have destroyed thy law. That it might well appear this impediment was not natural, so soon as the man is freed from the spirit, his tongue is free to his speech. The effects of spirits, as they are wrought, so they cease at once. If the son of God do but remove our spiritual possession, we shall presently break forth into the praise of God, into the confession of our vileness, into the profession of truth. But what strange variety do I see in the spectators of his miracle! some wondering, others censuring, a third sort tempting, a fourth applauding! There was never man or action but was subject to variety of renstructions. What man could be so hcly as he that was of God? what act could be more worthy, than the dispossessing of an evil spirit? Yet this man, this act, passeth these differences of interpretation. — What can we do, to undergo but one opinion? If we give alms and fast, some will magnify our charity and devotion, others will tax our hypocrisy; if we give not, some will condemn our hard-heartedness, others will allow our care of justice. If we preach plainly, to some it will savour of a careless slubbering, to others of a mortified sincerity; elaborately, some will tax our affectation, others will applaud our diligence in dressing the delicate viands of God. What marvel is it if it be thus with our imperfection, when it fared not otherwise with him that was purity and righteousness itself? The austere forerunner of Christ "came neither eating nor drinking; they say, He hath a devil. The Son of man came eating and drinking; they say, This man is a glutton, a friend of publicans and sinners:" and here one of his holy acts carries away at once wonder, censure, doubt, celebration. There is no way safe for a man, but to square his actions by the right rule of justice, or charity; and then let the world have leave to spend their glosses at pleasure. It was a heroical resolution of the chosen vessel, "I pass very little to be judged of you, or of man's day." 66 I marvel not if the people marvelled; for here were four wonders in one: the blind saw, the deaf heard, the dumb spake, the demoniac is delivered. Wonder was due to so rare and powerful a work, and, if not this, nothing. We can cast away admiration upon the poor devices or activities of men: how much more upon the extraordinary works of omnipotency! Whoso knows the frame of heaven and earth, shall not much be affected with the imperfect effects of frail humanity, but shall, with no less ravishment of soul, acknowledge the miraculous works of the same Almighty hand. Neither is the spiritual ejection worthy of any meaner entertainment. Rarity and difficulty are wont to cause wonder. There are many things which have wonder in their worth, and lose it in their frequence; there are some which have it in their strangeness, and lose it in their facility; both meet in this. To see men haunted, yea, possessed with a dumb devil, is so frequent that it is a just wonder to find a man free: but to find the dumb spirit cast out of a man, and to hear him praising God, confessing his sins, teaching others the sweet experiments |