and abettors of errors, when I see those devils, which are many in substance, are one in name, action, habitation. Who can too much brag of unity, when it is incident unto wicked spirits? all the praise of concord is in the subject: if that be holy, the consent is angelical; if sinful, devilish. What a fearful advantage have our spiritual enemies against us! If armed troops come against single stragglers, what hope is there of life, or victory? How much doth it concern us to band our hearts together in a communion of saints! Our enemies come upon us like a torrent: O let us not run asunder like drops in the dust! All our united forces will be little enough to make head against this league of destruction. Legion imports order, number, conflict. Order, in that there is a distinction of regiment, a subordination of officers. Though in hell there be confusion of faces, yet not confusion of degrees. Number: Those that have reckoned a legion, at the lowest, have counted it six thousand, others have more than doubled it. Though here it is not strict, but figurative, yet the letter of it implies multitude. How fearful is the consideration of the number of apostate angels! and if a legion can attend one man, how many must we needs think are they, who, all the world over, are at hand to the punishment of the wicked, the exercise of the good, the temptation of both! It cannot be hoped there can be any place or time wherein we may be secure from the onsets of these enemies. Be sure, ye lewd men, ye shall want no furtherance to evil, no torment for evil. Be sure, ye godly, ye shall not want combatants to try your Awaken your courage strength and skill. to resist, and stir up your hearts; make sure the means of your safety. There are more with us than against us. The God of heaven is with us, if we be with him: and our angels behold the face of God. If every devil were a legion, we are safe. "Though we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we shall fear no evil." Thou, O Lord, shalt stretch forth thine hand against the wrath of our enemies, and thy right hand shall save us. Conflict: All this number is not for sight, for rest; but for motion, for action. Neither was there ever hour, since the first blow given to our first parents, wherein there was so much as a truce betwixt these adversaries. As, therefore, strong frontier towns, when there is a peace concluded on both parts, break up their garrisons, open their gates, neglect their bulwarks; but when they hear of the enemy mustering his forces in great and unequal numbers, then The devils are now become great suitors of that infernal fire, we durst not offer to fetch pleasures or profits out of the midst of those flames. guard the vital parts. While the soul is kept sound from impatience, from distrust, our enemy may afflict us, he cannot hurt us. This degree of torment they grant in They sue for a sufferance, not daring Christ's power to command; they knew other than to grant, that, without the perhis power irresistible: had he therefore but mission of Christ, they could not hurt a said, Back to hell, whence ye came! they very swine. If it be fearful to think how could no more have staid upon earth, than great things evil spirits can do with perthey can now climb into heaven. O the mission, it is comfortable to think how wonderful dispensations of the Almighty! nothing they can do without permission. who, though he could command all the evil | We know they want not malice to destroy spirits down to their dungeons in an instant, the whole frame of God's work, but of all, so as they should have no more oppor- man; of all men, Christians: but if withtunity of temptation, yet thinks fit to retain out leave they cannot set upon a hog, what them upon earth! It is not out of weak- can they do to the living images of their ness or improvidence of that divine hand, Creator? They cannot offer us so much as that wicked spirits tyrannize here upon a suggestion, without the permission of our earth; but out of the most wise and most Saviour. And can he, that would give his holy ordination of God, who knows how own most precious blood for us, to save us to turn evil into good, how to fetch good from evil, wilfully give us over to evil? out of evil, and by the worst instruments to bring about his most just decrees. O that we could adore that awful and infinite Power, and cheerfully cast ourselves upon that Providence, which keeps the keys even of hell itself, and either lets out or returns the devils to their places! It is no news that wicked spirits wish to do mischief; it is news that they are allowed it. If the owner of all things should stand upon his absolute command, who can challenge him for what he thinks fit to do with his creatures? The first foal of the ass is commanded under the law to have his neck broken. What is that to us? The creatures do that they were made for, if they may serve any way to the glory of their Maker. But seldom ever doth God leave his actions unfurnished with such reasons as our weakness may reach unto. There were sects amongst the Jews that denied spirits: they could not be more evidently, more powerfully convinced, than by this event. Now shall the Gadarenes see from what a multitude of devils they were delivered; and how easy it had been for the same power to have allowed these spirits to seize upon their persons as well as their swine. Neither did God this without a just purpose of their castigation. His judgments are righteous, where they are most secret. : Their other suit hath some marvel in moving it, more in the grant: "That they might be suffered to enter into the herd of swine." It was their ambition of some mischief that brought forth this desire; that since they might not vex the body of man, they might yet afflict men in their goods. The malice of these envious spirits reacheth from us to ours: it is sore against their wills, if we be not every way miserable. If the swine were legally unclean for the use of the table, yet they were naturally good. Had not Satan known them useful for man, he had never desired their ruin. But as fencers will seem to fetch a blow at the leg, when they intend it at the head, so doth this devil: while he drives at the swine, he aims at the souls of these Gadarenes by this means he hoped well, and his hope was not vain, to work in these Gergesenes a discontentment at Christ, an unwillingness to entertain him, a desire of his absence; he meant to turn them into swine, by the loss of their swine. It was not the rafters or stones of the house of Job's children that he bore the grudge to, but to the own-off us: if but in these we smart, we must ers; nor to the lives of the children, so much as to the soul of their father. There is no affliction wherein he doth not strike at the heart; which, while it holds free, all other damages are light: but “ a wounded spirit (whether with sin or sorrow) who can bear?" Whatever becomes of goods or limbs, happy are we, if, like wise soldiers, we Though we cannot accuse these inhabitants of aught, yet he could, and thought good thus to mulct them. And if they had not wanted grace to acknowledge it, it was no small favour of God that he would punish them in their swine for that which he might have avenged upon their bodies and souls. Our goods are farthest confess to find mercy. Sometimes it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits, in no favour to the suitors. He grants an ill suit, and withholds a good; he grants an ill suit in judgment, and holds back a good one in mercy. The Israelites ask meat; he gives quails to their mouths, and leanness to their souls The chosen vessel wishes Satan taken | frequent for a multitude to conspire in evil. off, and hears only, "My grace is sufficient Generality of assent is no warrant for any for thee." We may not evermore measure act. Common error carries away many, favours by condescent. These devils doubt- who inquire not into the reason of aught, less receive more punishment for that harm- but the practice. The way to hell is a ful act wherein they are heard. If we ask beaten road, through the many feet that what is either unfit to receive, or unlawful tread it. When vice grows into fashion, to beg, it is a great favour of our God to be singularity is a virtue. denied. There was not a Gadarene found that either dehorted his fellows, or opposed the motion. It is a sign of a people given up to judgment, when no man makes head against projects of evil. Alas! what can one strong man do against a whole throng of wickedness? Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance, that God forbears to plague, where he finds but a sprinkling of faith. Happy are they, who, like unto the celestial bodies (which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere, yet creep on their own ways), keep on the courses of their own holiness, against the swing of common corruptions; they shall both deliver their own souls, and help to withhold judgment from others. Those spirits, which would go into the swine by permission, go out of the man by command; they had staid long, and are ejected suddenly. The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant, and do not require the aid of time for their maturation. No sooner are they cast out of the man, than they are in the swine. They will lose no time, but pass without intermission from one mischief to another. If they hold it a pain not to be doing evil, why is it not our delight to be ever doing good? The impetuousness was no less than the speed: "The herd was carried with violence from a steep place down into the lake, and was choked." It is no small force that could do this but if the swine had been so many The Gadarenes sue to Christ for his demountains, these spirits, upon God's per-parture. It is too much favour to attribute mission, had thus transported them. How easily can they carry those souls, which are under their power, to destruction? Unclean beasts, that wallow in the mire of sensuality; brutish drunkards, transforming themselves by excess; even they are the swine whom the Legion carries headlong to the pit of perdition. The wicked spirits have their wish: the swine are choked in the waves. What ease is this to them? Good God! that there should be any creature that seeks contentment in destroying, in tormenting, the good creatures of his Maker! This is the diet of hell. Those fiends feed upon spite towards man, so much more as he doth more resemble his Creator; towards all other living substances, so much more as they may be more useful to man. The swine ran down vio. lently what marvel is it if their keepers fled? That miraculous work, which should have drawn them to Christ, drives them from him. They run with the news; the country comes in with the clamour : whole multitude of the country about besought him to depart." The multitude is a beast of many heads; every head hath a several mouth, and every mouth a several tongue, and every tongue a several accent; every head hath a several brain, and every brain thoughts of their own; so as it is hard to find a multitude without some division; at least, seldom ever hath a good motion lound a perfect accordance: it is not so in "The this to their modesty, as if they held themselves unworthy of so divine a guest. Why then did they fall upon this suit in a time of their loss? why did they not tax themselves, and intimate a secret desire of that which they durst not beg? It is too much rigour to attribute it to the love of their hogs, and anger at their loss; then they had not entreated, but expelled him. It was their fear that moved this rash suit; a servile fear of danger to their persons, to their goods; lest he that could so absolutely command the devils, should have set these tormentors upon them; lest their other demoniacs should be dispossessed with like loss. I cannot blame these Gadarenes, that they feared. This power was worthy of trembling at; their fear was unjust: they should have argued, This man hath power over men, beasts, devils: it is good having him to our friend; his presence is our safety and protection. Now they contrarily misinfer, Thus powerful is he: it is good he were further off. What miserable and pernicious misconstructions do men make of God, of divine attributes and actions! God is omnipotent, able to take infinite vengeance of sin; O that he were not! he is provident, I may be careless; he is merciful, I may sin; he is holy, let him depart from me, for I am a sinful man. How witty sophisters are natural men, to deceive thei own souls, to rob themselves of a God! O Saviour, how worthy are they to want thee, that wish to be rid of thee! Thou hast just cause to be weary of us, even while we sue to hold thee: but when once our wretched unthankfulness grows weary of thee, who can pity us to be punished with thy departure? who can say it is other than righteous, that thou shouldest retort one day upon us, "Depart from me, ye wicked?" BOOK IV. CONTEMPLATION I.THE FAITHFUL CANAANITE. Ir was our Saviour's trade to do good; therefore he came down from heaven to earth, therefore he changed one station of earth for another. Nothing more commends goodness than generality and diffusion; whereas, reservedness and close-handed restraint blemishes the glory of it. The sun stands not still in one point of heaven, but walks his daily round, that all the inferior world may share of his influences both in heat and light. Thy bounty, O Saviour, did not affect the praise of fixedness, but motion: one while I find thee at Jerusalem, then at Capernaum, soon after in the utmost verge of Galilee; never but doing good. But as the sun, though he daily compass the world, yet never walks from under his line, never goes beyond the turning points of the longest and shortest day; so neither didst thou, O Saviour, pass the bounds of thine own peculiar people. Thou wouldst move, but not wildly; not out of thine own sphere, wherein thy glorified estate exceeds thine humbled, as far as heaven is above earth. Now thou art lift up, thou drawest all men unto thee: there are now no lists, no limits of thy gracious visitations; but as the whole earth is equidistant from heaven, so all the motions of the world lie equally open to thy bounty. Neither yet did thou want outward occasions of thy removal. Perhaps the very importunity of the Scribes and Pharisees, in obtruding their traditions, drove thee thence; perhaps their unjust offence at thy doctrine. There is no readier way to lose Christ, than to clog him with human ordinances, than to spurn at his heavenly instructions. He doth not always subduce his spirit with his visible presence; but his very outward withdrawing is worthy of our sighs, worthy of our tears. Many a one may say, "Lord, if thou hadst been here, my soul had not died." Thou art now with us, O Saviour, thou art with us in a free and plentiful fashion: how long, thou knowest; we know our deservings, and fear. O teach us how happy we are in such a guest, and give us grace to keep thee! Hadst thou walked within the Phnician borders, we could have told how to have made glad constructions of thy mercy in turning to the Gentiles: thou, that couldst touch the lepers without uncleanness, couldst not be defiled with aliens; but we know the partition-wall was not yet broken down, and that thou who didst charge thy disciples not to walk into the way of the Gentiles, wouldst not trangress thine own rule. Once we are sure thou camest to the utmost point of the bounds of Galilee; as not ever confined to the heart of Jewry, thou wouldst sometimes bless the outer skirts with thy presence. No angle is too obscure for the gospel: "The land of Zabulun, and the land of Naphthali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness, saw great light." The sun is not scornful, but looks with the same face upon every plot of earth: not only the stately palaces and pleasant gardens are visited by his beams, but mean cottages, but neglected bogs and moors. God's word is, like himself, no excepter of persons; the wild Kern, the rude Scythian, the savage Indian, are alike to it. The mercy of God will be sure to find out those that belong to his election in the most secret corners of the world, likeas his judgments will fetch his enemies from under the hills and rocks. The good Shepherd walks the wilderness to seek one sheep strayed from many. If there be but one SyroPhoenician soul to be gained to the church, Christ goes to the coasts of Tyre and Sidon to fetch her. Why are we weary to do good, when our Saviour underwent this perpetual toil in healing bodies and winning souls? There is no life happy, but that which is spent in a continual drudging for edification. It is long since we heard of the name or nation of Canaanites: all the country was once so styled; that people are now forgotten; yet, because this woman was of the blood of those Phoenicians, which were anciently ejected out of Canaan, that title is revived to her. God keeps account of pedigrees, after our oblivion, that he may magnify his mercies by continuing them to thousands of the generations of the just, and by renewing favours upon the unjust. No nation carried such brands and scars of a curse, as Canaan. To the shame of those careless Jews, even a faithful Canaanite is a suppliant to Christ, while they neglect CONT. I.] THE FAITHFUL CANAANITE. She doth not speak, 80 great salvation. but cry: need and desire have raised her voice to an importunate clamour. The God of mercy is light of hearing, yet he loves a loud and vehement solicitation; not to make himself inclinable to grant, but to make us capable to receive blessings. They are words and not prayers, which fall from careless lips. If we felt our want, or wanted not desire, we could speak to God in no tune but cries. If we would prevail with God, we must wrestle; and, if we would wrestle happily with God, we must wrestle first with our own dulness: nothing but cries can 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 than the deity and the humanity, 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 progenitors of Christ, two are singled out by an eminence, David and Abraham, a king, a patriarch; and though the patriarch was 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 kingdom, 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 faithful, David of the kings of Judah and Israel; there are many faithful, 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 only 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 | | 461 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, while 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 counsellors, that sent him with a cord about his neck to the merciful king of Israel. These are the files and whetstones that set an edge on our devotions, without which they grow dull and ineffectual; We cannot have neither are they stronger motives to our suit than to Christ's mercy. a better spokesman unto God than 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 ot 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, than 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 forelay 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 My daughter is The worst this faithful woman say, grievously vexed of the devil." 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 than a kind answer to so pious and faithful a |