we want.

Why our Saviour looked up to heaven, though he had heaven in himself, we can see reason enough. But why did he sigh? Surely not for need: the least motion of a thought was in him impetratory: how could he choose but be heard by his Father, who was one with the Father? not for any fear of distrust, but partly for compassion, partly for example, for compassion of those manifold infirmities into which sin had plunged mankind, a pitiful instance whereof was here presented unto him: for example, to fetch sighs from us for the miseries of others, sighs of sorrow for them, sighs of desire for their redress. This is not the first time that our Saviour spent sighs, yea tears, upon human distresses. We are not bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh, if we so feel not the smart of our brethren, that the fire of our passion break forth into the smoke of sighs. "Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?"

Christ was not silent while he cured the dumb; his Ephphatha gave life to all these his other actions. His sighing, his spitting, his looking up to heaven, were the acts of a man; but his command of the ear and mouth to open, was the act of God. He could not command that which he made not; his word is imperative, ours supplicatory. He doth what he will with us; we do by him what he thinks good to impart.

In this mouth the word cannot be severed from the success. Our Saviour's lips are no sooner opened in his Ephphatha, than the mouth of the dumb and the ears of the deaf are opened. At once behold here celerity and perfection. Natural agents work by leisure, by degrees: nothing is done in an instant; by many steps is every thing carried from the entrance to the consummation. Omnipotence knows no rules: no imperfect work can proceed from a cause absolutely perfect. The man hears now

deaf; and speaks more plainly, than if he had never been tongue-tied: and can we blame him, if he bestowed the handsel of his speech upon the Power that restored it? if the first improvement of his tongue were the praise of the Giver, of the Maker of it? or can we expect other than that our Saviour should say, Thy tongue is free, use it to the praise of Him that made it so; thy ears are open, hear him that bids thee proclaim thy cure upon the house-top? But now, behold, contrarily, he that opens this man's mouth by his powerful word, by the same word shuts it again, charging silence by the same breath wherewith he gave speech: "Tell no man."

Those tongues, which interceded for his cure, are charged for the concealment of it. O Saviour, thou knowest the grounds of thine own commands; it is not for us to enquire, but to obey; we may not honour thee with a forbidden celebration. Good meanings have ofttimes proved injurious; those men, whose charity employed their tongues to speak for the dumb man, do now employ the same tongues to speak of his cure, when they should have been dumb. This charge, they imagine, proceeds from an humble modesty in Christ, which the respect to his honour bids them violate. I know not how we itch after those forbidden acts, which, if left to our liberty, we willingly neglect. This prohibition increaseth the rumour; every tongue is busied about this one: what can we make of this, but a well-meant disobedience? O God, I should more gladly publish thy name at thy command. I know thou canst not bid me to dishonour thee; there is no danger of such an injunction: but if thou shouldst bid me to hide the profession of thy name and wondrous works, I should fulfil thy words, and not examine thine intentions. Thou knowest how to win more honour by our silence, than by our promulgation. A forbidden good differs little from evil. What makes our actions to be sin, but thy prohibitions? our judgment avails nothing. If thou forbid us that which we think good, it becomes as faulty to theeward, as that which is originally evil. Take thou charge of thy glory; give me grace to take charge of thy precepts.

lilee to Jerusalem; he baulks it not, though | it were outwardly cursed; but, as the first Joshua saved a Rahab there, so there the second saves a Zaccheus; that an harlot, this a publican. The traveller was wounded as he was going from Jerusalem to Jericho; this man was taken from his Jericho to the true Jerusalem, and was healed. Not as a passenger did Christ walk this way, but as a visitor; not to punish, but to heal. With us, the sick man is glad to send far for the physician; here the physician comes to seek patients, and calls at our door for work. Had not this good shepherd left the ninetynine, and searched the desert, the lost sheep had never recovered the fold; had not his gracious frugality sought the lost groat, it had been swept up with the rushes, and thrown out in the dust. Still, O Saviour, dost thou walk through our Jericho: what would become of us, if thou shouldst stay till we seek thee alone? Even when thou hast found us, how hardly do we follow thee? The work must be all thine: we shall not seek thee, if thou find us not; we shall not follow thee, if thou draw us not.

:

Never didst thou, O Saviour, set one step in vain wheresoever thou art walking, there is some Zaccheus to be won. As in a drought, when we see some weighty cloud hovering over us, we say there is rain for some grounds, wheresoever it falls: the ordinances of God bode good to some souls, and happy are they on whom it lights.

How justly is Zaccheus brought in with a note of wonder! It is both great and good news to hear of a convert. To see men perverted from God to the world, from truth to heresy, from piety to profaneness, is as common as lamentable; every night such stars fall: but to see a sinner come home to God, is both happy and wondrous to men and angels. I cannot blame that philosopher, who undertaking to write of the hidden miracles of nature, spends most of his discourse upon the generation and formation of man: surely we are "fearfully and wonderfully made!" But how much greater is the miracle of our spiritual regeneration, that a son of wrath, a child of Satan, should be transformed into the son and heir of the ever-living God! O God, thou workest both: but in the one, our spirit animates us; in the other, thine own.

Yet some things, which have wonder in them for their worth, lose it for their frequence; this hath no less rarity in it than excellence. How many painful Peters have complained to fish all night, and catch nothing! Many professors, and few converts, hath been ever the lot of the gospel God's

house, as the streets of Jericho, may be thronged, and yet but one Zaccneus. As, therefore, in the lottery, when the great prize comes, the trumpet sounds before it; so the news of a convert is proclaimed with " Behold Zaccheus !" Any penitent had been worthy of a shout; but this man, by an eminence, a publican, a chief of the publicans, rich.

No name under heaven was so odious as this of a publican; especially to this nation, that stood so high upon their freedom, that every impeachment of it seemed no less than damnable; insomuch as they ask not, Is it fit, or needful? but, "Is it lawful to pay tribute unto Cæsar?" Any office of exaction must needs be heinous to a people so impatient of the yoke; and yet not so much the trade, as the extortion, drew ha tred upon this profession: out of both they are deeply infamous. One while they are matched with heathens, another while with harlots, always with sinners: "And behold Zaccheus, a publican." We are all naturally strangers from God; the best is indisposed to grace: yet some there are, whose very calling gives them better advantages. But this catchpollship of Zaccheus carried extortion in the face, and, in a sort, bade defiance to his conversion; yet, behold, from this tolbooth is called both Zaccheus to be a disciple, and Matthew to be an apostle. We are in the hand of a cunning workman, that, of the knottiest and crookedest timber can make rafters and ceiling for his own house; that can square the marble or flint, as well as the freest stone. Who can now plead the disadvantage of his place, when he sees a publican come to Christ? No calling can prejudice God's gracious election.

To excel in evil must needs be worse. If to be a publican be ill, surely to be an arch-publican is more. What talk we of the chief of publicans, when he that professed himself the chief of sinners, is now among the chief of saints? who can despair of mercy, when he sees one Jericho send both an harlot and a publican to heaven?

He that

The trade of Zaccheus was not a greater rub in his way, than his wealth. sent word to John for great news, that "The poor receive the gospel," said also, "How hard is it for a rich man to enter into heaven!" This bunch of the camel keeps him from passing the needle's eye; although not by any malignity that is in the creature itself (riches are the gift of God), but by reason of these three pernicious hang-byes, cares, pleasures, pride. which too commonly attend upon wealth:

separate these, riches are a blessing. If we can so possess them, that they possess not us, there can be no danger, much benefit, in abundance: all the good or ill of wealth or poverty, is in the mind, in the use. He that hath a free and lowly heart in riches is poor; he that hath a proud heart under rags, is rich. If the rich man do good and distribute, and the poor man steal, the rich hath put off his woe to the poor. Zaccheus had never been so famous a convert, if he had been poor; nor so liberal a convert, if he had not been rich. If more difficulty, yet more glory, was in the conversion of rich Zaccheus.

It is well that rich Zaccheus was desirous to see Christ. Little do too many rich men care to see that sight; the face of Cæsar on their coin is more pleasing. This man leaves his bags, to bless his eyes with this prospect. Yet can I not praise him for this too much; it was not, I fear, out of faith, but curiosity: he that had heard great fame of the man, of his miracles, would gladly see his face; even a Herod longed for this, and was never the better. Only this I find, that this curiosity of the eye, through the mercy of God, gave occasion to the belief of the heart. He that desires to see Jesus, is in the way to enjoy him; there is not so much as a remote possibility in the man that cares not to behold him. The eye were ill bestowed, if it were only to betray our souls; there are no less beneficial glances of it. We are not worthy | of this useful casement of the heart, if we do not thence send forth beams of holy desires, and thereby re-convey profitable and saving objects.

66

I cannot marvel if Zaccheus were desirous to see Jesus; all the world was not worth this sight. Old Simeon thought it best to have his eyes closed up with this spectacle, as if he held it pity and disparagement to see aught after it. The father of the faithful rejoiced to see him, though at nineteen hundred years' distance; and the great doctor of the Gentiles stands upon this as his highest stair: Have I not seen the Lord Jesus?" And yet, O Saviour, many a one saw thee here, that shall never see thy face above; yea, that shall call to the hills to hide them from thy sight; and, "If we had once known thee according to the flesh, henceforth know we thee so no more." What a happiness shall it be, so to see thee glorious, that in seeing thee we shall partake of thy glory! O blessed vision, to which all others are but penal and despicable! Let me go into the mint-house, and see heaps of gold, I am never the

richer; let me go to the pictures, and see goodly faces, I am never the fairer; let me go to the court, I see state and magnificence, and am never the greater: but, Saviour, I cannot see thee, and not be blessed. I can see thee here, though in a glass; if the eye of my faith be dim, yet it is sure. O let me be unquiet, till I do now see thee through the veil of heaven, ere I shall see thee as I am seen!

Fain would Zaccheus see Jesus, but he could not: it were strange, if a man should not find some let in good desires; somewhat will be still in the way betwixt us and Christ. Here are two hinderances met, the one internal, the other external; the stature of the man, the press of the multitude; the greatness of the press, the smallness of the stature. There was great thronging in the streets of Jericho to see Jesus; the doors, the windows, the bulks, were all full. Here are many beholders, few disciples. If gazing, if profession, were godliness, Christ would not want clients; now, amongst all these wonderers, there is but one Zaccheus. In vain should we boast of our forwardness to see and hear Christ in our streets, if we receive him not into our hearts.

This crowd hides Christ from Zaccheus. Alas! how common a thing it is, by the interposition of the throng of the world, to be kept from the sight of our Jesus! Here a carnal fashionist says, Away with this austere scrupulousness! let me do as the most the throng keeps this man from Christ. There a superstitious misbeliever says, What tell ye me of an handful of reformed? the whole world is ours: this man is kept from Christ by the throng. The covetous mammonist says, Let them that have leisure, be devout; my employments are many, my affairs great: this man cannot see Christ for the throng. There is no perfect view of Christ but in a holy secession. The spouse found not her beloved, till she was passed the company; then she found him whom her soul loved. Whoso never seeks Christ but in the crowd, shall never find comfort in finding him; the benefit of our public view must be enjoyed in retiredness. If in a press, we see a man's face, that is all; when we have him alone, every limb may be viewed. O Saviour, I would be loath not to see thee in thine assemblies; but I would be more loath not to see thee in my closet. Yet, had Zaccheus been but of the common pitch, he might perhaps have seen Christ's face over his fellow's shoulders; now his stature adds to the disadvantage: his body did not an

swer to his mind; his desires were high, while his body was low. The best is, however smallness of stature was disadvantageous in a level, yet it is not so at a height. A little man, if his eye be clear, may look as high, though not as far, as the tallest: the least pigmy may, from the lowest valley, see the sun or stars as fully as a giant upon the highest mountain. O Saviour, thou art now in heaven: the smallness of our person, or of our condition, cannot let us from beholding thee. The soul hath no stature, neither is heaven to be had with reaching only clear thou the eyes of my faith, and I am high enough.

I regard not the body; the soul is the man. It is to small purpose that the body is a giant, if the soul be a dwarf. We have to do with a God that measures us by our desires, not by our statures. All the streets of Jericho, however he seemed to the eye, had not so tall a man as Zaccheus.

The witty publican easily finds both his hinderances and the ways of their redress. His remedy for the press is to run before the multitude; his remedy for his stature is to climb up into the sycamore: he employs his feet in the one, his hands and feet in the other. In vain shall he hope to see Christ, that doth not outgo the common throng of the world. The multitude is clustered together, and moves too close to move fast we must be nimbler than they, if ever we desire or expect to see Christ. It is the charge of God, "Thou shalt not follow a multitude to do evil:" we do evil if we lag in good. It is held commonly both wit and state for a man to keep his pace; and that man escapes not censure, who would be forwarder than his fellows. Indeed, for a man to run alone in ways of indifferency, or to set a hypocritical face in outrunning all others in a zealous profession, when the heart lingers behind, both these are justly hateful: but in a holy emulation, to strive truly and really to outstrip others in degrees of grace, and a conscionable care of obedience, this is truly Christian, and worthy of him that would hope to be blessed with the sight of a Saviour.

Tell me, ye fashionable Christians, that stand upon terms of equality, and will not go a foot before your neighbours in holy zeal and aidful charity, in conscionable sincerity, tell me, who hath made other men's progress a measure of yours? Which of you says, I will be no richer, no greater, no fairer, no wiser, no happier than my fellows? Why should you then say, I will be no holier ? Our life is but a race; every good end that a man proposes to himself is

a several goal: did ever any man that ran for a prize say, I will keep up with the rest doth he not know that if he be not foremost, he loseth? We had as good to have sat still, as not "so to run that we may obtain." We obtain not, if we outrun not the multitude.

So far did Zaccheus overrun the stream of the people, that he might have space to climb the sycamore ere Jesus could pass by. I examine not the kind, the nature, the quality of this plant: what tree soever it had been, Zaccheus would have tried to scale it, for the advantage of this prospect: he hath found out this help for his stature, and takes pains to use it. It is the best improvement of our wit, to seek out the aptest furtherances for our souls. Do you see a weak and studious Christian, that being unable to inform himself in the matters of God, goes to the cabinet of heaven, “the priest's lips, which shall preserve knowledge;" there is Zaccheus in the sycamore: it is the truest wisdom that helps forward our salvation. How witty we are to supply all the deficiencies of nature! If we be low, we can add cubits to our stature; if ill coloured, we can borrow complexion; if hairless, perukes; if dim-sighted, glasses; if lame, crutches: and shall we be conscious of our spiritual wants, and be wilfully regardless of the remedy? Surely, had Zaccheus stood still on the ground, he had never seen Christ; had he not climbed the sycamore, he had never climbed into heaven. O Saviour, I have not height enough of my own to see thee; give me what sycamore thou wilt, give me grace to use it, give me a happy use of that grace.

The more I look at the mercy of Christ, the more cause I see of astonishment. Zaccheus climbs up into the sycamore to see Jesus; Jesus first sees him, preventing his eyes with a former view. Little did Zaccheus look that Jesus would have cast up his eyes to him. Well might he think, the boys in the street would spy him out, and shout at his stature, trade, ambition; but that Jesus should throw up his eyes into the sycamore, and take notice of that small despised morsel of flesh, ere Zaccheus could find space to distinguish his face from the rest, was utterly beyond his thought or expectation; all his hope is to see, and now he is seen to be seen and acknowledged, is much more than to see. Upon any solemn occasion, many thousands see the prince, whom he sees not; and, if he please to single out any one, whether by his eye or by his tongue, amongst the press, it passes for a high favour. Zaccheus would have