night, obscurely murdered in a close prison, and his head brought forth to the insultation and irrision of harlots and ruffians. O God, thou knowest what thou hast to do with thine own. Thus thou sufferest thine to be misused and slaughtered here below, that thou mayest crown them above. It should not be thus, if thou didst not mean that their glory should be answerable to their depression. CONTEMPLATION V. THE FIVE LOAVES AND TWO FISHES. WHAT flocking there was after Christ, which way soever he went! how did the kingdom of heaven suffer a holy violence in these his followers! Their importunity drove him from the land to the sea. When he was upon the sea of Tiberias, they followed him with their eyes, and when they saw which way he bent, they followed him so fast on foot, that they prevented his landing. Whether it were that our Saviour staid some while upon the water (as that which yielded him more quietness and freedom of respiration), or whether the foot passage, as it oft falls out, were the shorter cut, by reason of the compasses of the water, and the many elbows of the land, I inquire not; sure I am, the wind did not so swiftly drive on the ship, as desire and zeal drove on these eager clients. Well did Christ see them all the way; well did he know their steps, and guided them; and now he purposely goes to meet them whom he seemed to fly. Nothing can please God more than our importunity in seeking him: when he withdraws himself, it is that he may be more earnestly inquired for. Now then he comes to find them whom he made show to decline: "And seeing a great multitude, he passes from the ship to the shore." That which brought him from heaven to earth, brought him also from the sea to land; his compassion on their souls, that he might teach them; compassion on their bodies, that he might heal and feed them. Judea was not large, but populous: it could not be but there must be, amongst so many men, many diseased: it is no marvel if the report of so miraculous and universal sanations drew customers. They found three advantages of cure, above the power and performance of any earthly physician; certainty, bounty, ease: certainty, in that all comers were cured without fail; bounty, in that they were cured without charge; ease, in that they were cured without pain. Far be it from us, O Saviour, | to think that thy glory hath abated of thy mercy: still and ever thou art our assured, bountiful, and perfect Physician, who healest all our diseases, and takest away all our infirmities. O that we could have our faithful recourse to thee in all our spiritual maladies! it were as impossible we should want help, as that thou shouldst want power and mercy. That our Saviour might approve himself every way beneficent, he, that had filled the souls of his auditors with spiritual repast, will now fill their bodies with temporal; and he, that had approved himself the universal Physician of his church, will now be known to be the great householder of the world, by whose liberal provision mankind is maintained. He did not more miraculously heal, than he feeds miraculously. The disciples, having well noted the diligent and importune attendance of the multitude, now towards evening come to their Master, in a care of their repast and discharge: "This is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages and buy themselves victuals." How well it becomes even spiritual guides to regard the bodily necessities of God's people! This is not directly in our charge, neither may we leave our sacred ministration to serve tables. But yet, as the bodily father must take care for the soul of his child, so must the spiritual have respect to the body. This is all that the world commonly looks after, measuring their pastors more by their dishes than by their doctrine or conversation, as if they had the charge of their bellies, not of their souls; if they have open cellars, it matters not whether their mouths be open. If they be sociable in their carriage, favourable and indulgent to their recreations, full in their cheer, how easily doth the world dispense with either their negligence or enormities! as if the souls of these men lay in their weasand, in their gut. But surely they have reason to expect from their teachers a due proportion of hospitality. An unmeet parsimony is here not more odious than sinful: and where ability wants, yet care may not be wanting. Those preachers, which are so intent upon their spiritual work, that in the meantime they overstrain the weaknesses of their people, holding them in their devotions longer than human frailty will permit, forget not themselves more than their pattern, and must be sent to school to these compassionate disciples, who, when evening was come, sue to Christ for the people's dismission. The place was desert, the time evening. Doubtless our Saviour made choice of both these, that there might be both more use and more note of his miracle. Had it been in the morning, their stomach had not been ap, their feeding had been unnecessary: had it been in the village, provision either might have been made, or at least would have seemed made by themselves. But now that it was both desert and evening, there was good ground for the disciples to move, and for Christ to work their sustentation. Then only may we expect, and crave help from God, when we find our need. Superfluous aid can neither be heartily desired, nor earnestly looked for, nor thankfully received from the hands of mercy. "Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee." If it be not a burden, it is no casting it upon God. Hence it is, that divine aid comes ever in the very upshot and exigence of our trials, when we have been exercised, and almost tired with long | hopes, yea, with despairs of success; that it may be both more longed for ere it come, and, when it comes, more welcome! O the faith and zeal of these clients of Christ! they not only follow him from the city into the desert, from delicacy to want, from frequence to solitude, but forget their bodies in pursuit of the food of their souls. Nothing is more hard for a healthful man to forget than his belly: within few hours this will be sure to solicit him, and will take no denials. Yet such sweetness did these hearers find in the spiritual repast, that they thought not on the bodily: the disciples pitied them; they had no mercy on themselves. By how much more a man's mind is taken up with heavenly things, so much less shall he care for earthly. What shall earth be to us, when we are all spirit? and in the meantime, according to the degrees of our intellectual elevations shall be our neglect of bodily contentments. The disciples think they move well: "Send them away, that they may buy victuals." Here was a strong charity, but a weak faith; a strong charity, in that they would have the people relieved; a weak faith, in that they supposed they could not otherwise be so well relieved. As a man who, when he sees many ways lie before him, takes that which he thinks both fairest and nearest, so do they: this way of relief lay openest to their view, and promised most. Well might they have thought, It is as easy for our Master to feed them, as to heal them; there is an equal facility in all things to a supernatural power: yet they say, Send them away." In all our projects and suits, we are still ready to move for that which is most obvious, most likely, when sometimes that is less agreeable to the will of God. The All-wise and Almighty arbiter of all things hath a thousand secret means to honour himself in his proceedings with us. It is not for us to carve boldly for ourselves; but we must humbly depend on the disposal of his wisdom and mercy. Our Saviour's answer gives a strange check to their motion: "They need not depart." Not need! They had no vic. tuals; they must have; there was none to be had. What more need could be? He knew the supply which he intended, though they knew it not. His command was therefore more strange than his assertion, "Give ye them to eat." Nothing gives what it hath not. Had they had victuals, they had not called for a dismission; and not having, how should they give? It was thy wisdom, O Saviour, thus to prepare thy disciples for the intended miracle: thou wouldst not do it abruptly, without an intimation both of the purpose of it, and the necessity. And how modestly dost thou undertake it, without noise, without ostentation! I hear thee not say, I will give them to eat; but, "Give ye:" as if it should be their act, not thine. Thus sometimes it pleaseth thee to require of us what we are not able to perform ; either that thou mayest show us what we cannot do, and so humble us; or that thou mayest erect us to a dependence upon thee, which canst do it for us. As when the mother bids the infant come to her, which hath not yet the steady use of his legs, it is that he may cling the faster to her hand or coat for supportation. Thou biddest us impotent wretches to keep thy royal law. Alas! what can we sinners do? there is no one letter of those thy ten words that we are able to keep. This charge of thine intends to show us not our strength, but our weakness. Thus thou wouldst turn our eyes both back to what we might have done, to what we could have done; and upwards to thee in whom we have done it, in whom we can do it. He wrongs thy goodness and justice that misconstrues these thy commands, as if they were of the same nature with those of the Egyptian taskmasters, requiring the brick, and not giving the straw. But in bidding us do what we cannot, thou enablest us to do what thou biddest. Thy precepts, under the gospel, have not only an intimation of our duty, but an habilitation of thy power: as here, when thou badest the disciples to give to the multitude, thou didst mean to supply unto them what thou commandedst to give. Our Saviour hath what he would. -an acknowledgment of their insufficiency: "We have here but five loaves and two fishes." A poor provision for the family of the Lord of the whole earth. Five loaves, and those barley; two fishes, and those little ones. We well know, O Saviour, that the beasts were thine on a thousand mountains, all the corn thine that covered the whole surface of the earth, all the fowls of the air thine; it was thou that providedst those drifts of quails that fell among the tents of thy rebellious Israelites, that rainedst down those showers of manna round about their camp and dost thou take up, for thyself and thy household, with "five barley loaves and two little fishes?" Certainly this was thy will, not thy need; to teach us that this body must be fed, not pampered. Our belly may not be our master, much less our god; or if it be, the next word is, "whose glory is their shame, whose end damnation." It is noted as the crime of the rich glutton, that "6 he fared deliciously every day." I never find that Christ entertained any guests but twice, and that was only with loaves and fishes. I find him sometimes feasted by others more liberally. But his domes-upon whom both themselves and all their tical fare, how simple, how homely is it! The end of food is to sustain nature. Meat was ordained for the belly, the belly for the body, the body for the soul, the soul for God: we must still look through the subordinate ends to the highest. To rest in the pleasure of the meat, is for those creatures which have no souls. O the extreme delicacy of these times! What conquisition is here of all sorts of curious dishes from the furthest seas and lands, to make up one hour's meal! what broken cookery! what devised mixtures! what nice sauces! what feasting, not of the taste only, but of the scent! Are we the disciples of him that took up with the loaves and fishes, or the scholars of a Philoxenus, or an Apicius, or Vitellius, or those other monsters of the palate the true sons of those first parents that killed themselves with their teeth? measure all our hopes by human possibilities, and, when they fail, to despair of success, where true faith measures them by divine power, and therefore can never be disheartened. This grace is for things not seen, and whether beyond hope, or against it. The virtue is not in the means, but in the agent: "Bring them hither to me.' How much more easy had it been for our Saviour to fetch the loaves to him, than to multiply them! The hands of the disciples shall bring them, that they might more fully witness both the Author, and manner of the instant miracle. Had the loaves and fishes been multiplied without this bringing, perhaps they might have seemed to have come by the secret provision of the guests; now there can be no question either of the act, or of the agent. As God takes pleasure in doing wonders for men, so he loves to be acknowledged in the great works that he doth. He hath no reason to part witn his own glory: that is too precious for him to lose, or for his creature to embezzle. And how justly didst thou, O Saviour, in this, mean to teach thy disciples, that it was thou only who feedest the world, and Neither was the quality of these victuals more coarse than the quantity small. They make a "but" of five loaves and two fishes; and well might, in respect of so many thousand mouths. A little food to a hungry stomach doth rather stir up appetite than satisfy it; as a little rain upon a droughty soil doth rather help to scorch than refresh it. When we look with the eye of sense or reason upon any object, we shall see an impossibility of those effects which faith can easily apprehend, and divine power more easily produce. Carnal minds are ready to fellow-creatures must depend for their nourishment and provision; and that, if it came not through thy hands, it could not come to theirs! There need no more words. I do not hear the disciples stand upon the terms of their own necessity: Alas, Sir, it is too little for ourselves; whence shall we then relieve our own hunger? give leave to our charity to begin at home. But they willingly yield to the command of their Master, and put themselves upon his providence for the sequel. When we have a charge from God, it is not for us to stand upon self-respects; in this case there is no such sure liberty as in a self-contempt. O God, when thou callest to us for our five loaves, we must forget our own interest; otherwise, if we be more thrifty than obedient, our good turns evil; and much better had it been for us to have wanted that which we withhold from the owner. He that is the Master of the feast marshals the guests: "He commanded the multitude to sit down on the grass." They obey, and expect. O marvellous faith! so many thousands sit down, and address themselves to a meal, when they saw nothing but five poor barley loaves, and two small fishes! None of them say, Sit down to what? here are the mouths, but where is the meat? we can soon be set, but whence shall we be served? ere we draw our knives let us see our cheer. But they meekly and obediently dispose themselves to their places, and look up to Christ for a miraculous purveyance. It is for all, that would be Christ's followers, to lead the life of faith; and, even where means appear not, to wait upon that merciful hand. Nothing is more easy than to trust God when our barns and coffers are full; and to say, "Give to us our daily bread," when we have it in our cupboard. But when we have nothing, when we know not how or whence to get anything, then to depend upon an invisible bounty, this is a true and noble act of faith. To cast away our own, that we may imme. diately live upon divine Providence, I know no warrant. But when the necessity is of God's making, we see our refuge; and happy are we, if our confidence can fly to it, and rest in it. Yea, fulness should be a curse, if it should debar us from this dependence: at our best, we must look up to this great Householder of the world, and cannot but need his provision. If we have meat, perhaps not appetite; if appetite, it may be not digestion; or, if that, not health and freedom from pain; or, if that, perhaps from other occurrence, not life. The guests are set, full of expectation. He, that could have multiplied the bread in absence, in silence takes it and blesses it: that he might at once show them the Author and the means of this increase. It is thy blessing, O God, that maketh rich. What a difference do we see in men's estates! Some languish under great means, and enjoy not either their substance or themselves; others are cheerful and happy in a little. Second causes may not be denied their work; but the overruling power is above. The subordinateness of the creature doth not take away from the right, from the thank of the first mover. 66 He could as well have multiplied the loaves whole; why would he rather do it in the breaking? Was it to teach us, that in the distribution of our goods we should expect his blessing, not in their entireness and reservation? There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth," saith Solomon: yea, there is no man but increaseth by scattering. It is the grain thrown into the several furrows of the earth, which yields the rich interest unto the husbandman: that which is tied up in his sack, or heaped in his granary, decreaseth by keeping. He that soweth liberally, shall reap liberally." Away with our weak distrust! If wealth came by us, giving were the way to want: now that God gives to the giver, nothing can so sure enrich us as our beneficence. 66 He multiplied the bread, not to keep, but to give: He gave it to the disciples." And why not rather by his own hand to the multitude, that so the miracle and thank might have been more immediate? Wherefore was this, O Saviour, but that thou mightest win respect to thy disciples from the people? as great princes, when they would ingratiate a favourite, pass no suits but through his hands. What an honour was this to thy servants, that as thou wert Mediator betwixt thy Father and man, so thou wouldst have them, in some beneficial occasion, mediate betwixt men and thee! How fit a type is this of thy spiritual provision, that thou who couldst have fed the world by thine immediate word, wouldst, by the hands of thy ministers, divide the bread of life to all hearers! likeas it was with the law; well did the Israelites see and hear that thou couldst deliver that dreadful message with thine own mouth, yet, in favour of their weakness, thou wouldst treat with them by a Moses. Use of means derogates nothing from the efficacy of the principal agent, yea, adds to it. It is a strange weakness of our spiritual eyes, if we can look but to the next hand. How absurd had these guests been, if they had terminated the thanks in the servitors, and had said, We have it from you; whence ye had it, is no part of our care: we owe this favour to you; if you owe it to your master, acknowledge your obligations to him, as we do unto you. But since they well knew that the disciples might have handled this bread long enough ere any such effect could have followed, they easily find to whom they are beholden. Our Christian wisdom must teach us, whosoever be the means, to reserve our main thanks for the Author of our good. He gave the bread then to his disciples, not to eat, not to keep, but to distribute. It was not their particular benefit he regarded in this gift, but the good of many. In every feast, each servitor takes up his dish, not to carry it aside into a corner for his own private repast, but to set it before the guests, for the honour of his master: when they have done, his cheer begins. What shall we say to those injurious waiters, who fatten themselves with those concealed messes which are meant to others? Their table is made their snare, and these stolen morsels cannot but end in bitterness. Accordingly, the disciples set this fare before the guests. I do not see so much as Judas reserve a share to himself, whether out of hunger or distrust. Had not our Saviour commanded so free a distribution, their self-love would easily have taught them where to begin. Nature says, First thyself, then thy friends: either extremity or particular charge gives grace occasion to alter the case. Far be it from us to think we have any claim in that which the owner gives us merely to bestow. : I know not now whether more to wonder at the miraculous eating, or the miraculous leaving. Here were a whole host of guests, five thousand men; and, in all likelihood, no fewer women and children. Perhaps some of these only looked on: nay, they did all eat. Perhaps every man a crumb, or a bit nay, they did all eat to satiety; "All were satisfied." So many must needs make clean work of so little, there could be left nothing. Yea, there were fragments remaining; perhaps some crumbs or crusts, hardly to be discerned, much less gathered: nay, "Twelve baskets full;" more remained than was first set down. Had they eaten nothing, it was a just miracle that so much should be left; had nothing remained, it was no less miracle that so many had eaten, and so many satisfied; but now that so many bellies and so many baskets were filled, the miracle was doubled. O work of a boundless Omnipotency! Whether this were done by creation or by conversion, uses to be questioned, but needs not: while Christ multiplies the bread, it is not for us to multiply his miracles. To make aught of nothing, is more than to add much unto something. It was therefore rather by turning of a former matter into these substances, than by making these substances of nothing. Howsoever, here is a marvellous provision made, a marvellous bounty of that provision, a no less marvellous extent of that bounty. Those that depend upon God, and busy themselves in his work, shall not want a due purveyance in the very desert. Our strait and confined beneficence reaches so far as to provide for own: those of our domestics, which labour in our service, do but justly expect and challenge their diet; whereas, day-labourers are ofttimes at their own finding. How much more will that God, who is infinite in mercy and power, take order for the livelihood of those that attend him! We see the birds of the air provided for by him: how rarely have we found any of them dead of hunger; yet, what do they, but what they are carried unto by natural instinct? how much more, where, besides propriety, there is a rational and willing service. Shall the Israelites be fed with manna, Elijah by the ravens, the widow by her multiplied meal and oil, | Christ's clients in the wilderness with loaves and fishes? O God, while thou dost thus promerit us by thy providence, let not us wrong thee by distrust. God's undertakings cannot but be exquisite: those whom he professes to feed must needs have enough. The measure of his bounty cannot but run over. Doth he take upon him to prepare a table for his Israel in the desert? the bread shall be the food of angels; the flesh shall be the delicates of princes, manna and quails. Doth he take upon him to make wine for the marriagefeast of Cana? there shall be both store and choice; the vintage yields poor stuff to this. Will he feast his auditors in the wilderness? if they have not dainties, they shall have plenty; "They were all satisfied." Neither, yet, O Saviour, is thy hand closed. What abundance of heavenly doctrine dost thou set before us! how are we feasted, yea, pampered with thy celestial delicacies! not according to our meanness, but according to thy state, are we fed. Thrifty and niggardly collations are not for princes. We are full of thy goodness: O let our hearts run over with thanks! I do gladly wonder at this miracle of thine, O Saviour, yet so as that I forget not mine own condition. Whence is it that we have our continual provision? one and the same munificent hand doth all. If the Israelites were fed with manna in the desert, and with corn in Canaan, both were done by the same power and bounty. If the disciples were fed by the loaves multiplied, and we by the grain multiplied, both are the act of one Omnipotence. What is this but a perpetual miracle, O God, which thou workest for our preservation? Without thee there is no more power in the grain to multiply, than in the loaf: it is thou that "givest it a body at thy pleasure, even to every seed his own body;" it is thou that "givest fulness of bread and cleanness of teeth." It is no reason thy goodness should be less magnified, because it is universal. One or two baskets could have held the five loaves and two fishes; not less than twelve can hold the remainders. The divine munificence provides not for our necessity only, but for our abundance, yea superfluity. Envy and ignorance, while they make God the author of enough, are ready to impute the surplusage to another cause; as we commonly say of wine, that the liquor is God's, the excess Satan's. Thy table, O Saviour, convinces them, which had more taken away than set on: thy blessing makes an estate not competent only, but rich. I hear of barns full of |