faith, and shaking it, and trying whether it were fast rooted, as he did with that woman in the Gospel, who came after him, in her daughter's behalf, crying, Have mercy upon me O Lord, thou Son of David", for Christ gave not that woman one word; when her importunity made his disciples speak to him, he said no more, but that he was not sent to such as she; this was far, very far from a Confide filia, Daughter be of good cheer; but yet, this put her not off, but (as it follows) She followed, and worshipped him, and said, O Lord help me: and all this prevailed no farther with him, but to give such an answer, as was more discomfortable, than a silence, It is not fit to take the children's bread, and cast it unto dogs. She denies not that, she contradicts him not; she says, Truth Lord, it is not fit to take the childrens' bread, and to cast it unto dogs, and Truth Lord, I am one of those dogs; but yet she perseveres in her holy importunity, and in her good ill-manners, and says, Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table: and then, and not till then comes Jesus to that, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt; and her daughter was healed. But all this, at last, was but a bodily restitution, here was no dimittuntur peccata in the case, no declaration of forgiveness of sins: but with this man in our text, Christ goes farther, and comes sooner to an end; he exercises him with no disputation, he leaves no room for any diffidence, but at first word establishes him, and then builds upon him. Now beloved, which way soever of these two God have taken with thee, whether the longer, or the shorter way, bless thou the Lord, praise him, and magnify him for that. If God have settled and strengthened thy faith early, early in thy youth heretofore, early at the beginning of a sermon now, a day is as a thousand years with God, a minute is as six thousand years with God, that which God hath not done upon the nations, upon the Gentiles, in six thousand years, never since the creation, which is, to reduce them to the knowledge, and application of the Messiah, Christ Jesus, that he hath done upon thee, in an instant. If he have carried thee about the longer way, if he have exposed thee to scruples, and perplexities, and storms in thine understanding, or conscience, yet in the midst of the tempest, 16 Matt. xv. 22. the soft air, that he is said to come in, shall breathe into thee; in the midst of those clouds, his Son shall shine upon thee; in the midst of that flood he shall put out his rainbow, his seal that thou shalt not drown, his sacrament of fair weather to come, and as it was to the thief, thy cross shall be thine altar, and thy faith shall be thy sacrifice. Whether he accomplish his work upon thee soon or late, he shall never leave thee all the way, without this confide fili, a holy confidence, that thou art his, which shall carry to the dimittuntur peccata, to the peace of conscience, in the remission of sins. In which two words, we noted unto you, that Christ hath instituted a catechism, an instruction for this new convertite, and adopted son of his; in which, the first lesson that is therein implied, is, antequam rogetur, that God is more forward to give, than man to ask: it is not said that the sick man, or his company in his behalf, said anything to Christ, but Christ speaks first to them. If God have touched thee here, didst thou ask that at his hands? Didst thou pray before thou camest hither, that he would touch thy heart here? perchance thou didst but when thou wast brought to thy baptism, didst thou ask anything at God's hands then? But those that brought thee, that presented thee, did; they did in thy baptism; but at thine election, then when God writing down the names of all the elect, in the Book of Life, how camest thou in? Who brought thee in then? Didst thou ask anything at God's hands then, when thou thyself wast not at all? : Dat prius, that is the first lesson in this catechism, God gives before we ask, and then dat meliora rogatis, God gives better things, than we ask; they intended to ask but bodily health, and Christ gave spiritual, he gave remission of sins. And what gained he by that? why, Beati quorum remissæ iniquitates, Blessed are they, whose sins are forgiven. But what is blessedness? Any more than a confident expectation of a good state in the next world? Yes; blessedness includes all that can be asked or conceived in the next world, and in this too. Christ in his sermon of blessedness, says first, Blessed are they, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; and after, Blessed are they, for they shall inherit the earth; again, Blessed, for they shall obtain mercy; and VOL. III. K Blessed, for they shall be filled": remission of sins is blessedness, and as godliness hath the promise of this world, and the next, so blessedness hath the performance of both: he that hath peace in the remission of sins, is blessed already, and shall have those blessings infinitely multiplied in the world to come. The farthest that Christ goes in the expressing of the affections of a natural father here, is, that if his son ask bread, he will not give him a stone; and if he ask a fish, he will not give him a scorpion 18; he will not give him worse than he asked; but it is the peculiar bounty of this father, who adopted this son, to give more, and better, spiritual for temporal. Another lesson, which Christ was pleased to propose to this new convertite, in this catechism, was, to inform him, that sins were the true causes of all bodily diseases. Diseases and bodily afflictions are sometimes inflicted by God ad pœnam, non ad purgationem, not to purge or purify the soul of that man, by that affliction, but to bring him by the rack to the gallows, through temporary afflictions here, to everlasting torments hereafter; as Judas' hanging, and Herod's being eaten by worms", was their entrance into that place, where they are yet. Sometimes diseases and afflictions are inflicted only, or principally to manifest the glory of God, in the removing thereof; so Christ says of that man, that was born blind, that neither he himself had sinned, nor bore the sins of his parents, but he was born blind to present an occasion of doing a miracle". Sometimes they are inflicted ad humiliationem, for our future humiliation; so St. Paul says of himself, that lest he should be exalted above measure, by the abundance of revelations, he had that stimulum carnis, that vexation of the flesh, that messenger of Satan, to humble him. And then, sometimes they are inflicted for trial, and farther declaration of your conformity to God's will, as upon Job. But howsoever there be divers particular causes, for the diseases and afflictions of particular men, the first cause of death, and sickness, and all infirmities upon mankind in general, was sin; and it would not be hard for every particular man, almost, to find it in his own 19 Acts xii. 23. 17 Matt. v. 3-7. 18 Luke xi. 12. 23 John ix. 21 2 Cor. xii. 7. case too, to assign his fever to such a surfeit, or his consumption to such an intemperance. And therefore to break that circle, in which we compass, and immure, and imprison ourselves, that as sin begot diseases, so diseases begot more sins, impatience and murmuring at God's corrections, Christ begins to shake this circle, in the right way to break it, in the right link, that is, first to remove the sin, which occasioned the disease; for, till that be done, a man is in no better case, than, (as the prophet expresses it) If he should flee from a lion, and a bear met him, or if he should lean upon a wall, and a serpent bit him". What ease were it, to be delivered of a palsy, of slack and dissolved sinews, and remain under the tyranny of a lustful heart, of licentious eyes, of slack and dissolute speech and conversation? What ease to be delivered of the putrefaction of a wound in my body, and meet a murder in my conscience, done, or intended, or desired upon my neighbour? To be delivered of a fever in my spirits, and to have my spirit troubled with the guiltiness of an adultery? To be delivered of cramps, and cholics, and convulsions in my joints and sinews, and suffer in my soul all these, from my oppressions, and extortions, by which I have ground the face of the poor. It is but lost labour, and cost, to give a man a precious cordial, when he hath a thorn in his foot, or an arrow in his flesh; for, as long as the sin, which is the cause of the sickness, remains, deterius sequetur, a worse thing will follow; we may be rid of a fever, and the pestilence will follow, rid of the cramp, and a gout will follow, rid of sickness, and death, eternal death will follow. That which our Saviour prescribes is, noli peccare amplius, sin no more; first, non amplius, sin no more sins, take heed of gravid sins, of pregnant sins, of sins of concomitance, and concatenation, that chain and induce more sins after, as David's idleness did adultery, and that murder, and the loss of the Lord's army, and honour, in the blaspheming of his name, noli amplius, sin no more, no such sin as induces more; and noli amplius, sin no more, that is, sin thy own sin, thy beloved sin, no more times over; and still noli amplius, sin not that sin which thou hast given over in thy practice, in thy memory, by a sinful delight in remembering it; and again, noli 22 Amos v. 19. amplius, sin not over thy former sins, by holding in thy possession, such things as were corruptly gotten, by any such former practices for, deterius sequetur, a worse thing will follow, a tertian will be a quartan, and a quartan a hectic, and a hectic a consumption, and a consumption without a consummation, that shall never consume itself, nor consume thee to an insensibleness of torment. And then after these three lessons in this catechism, that God gives before we ask, that he gives better than we ask, that he informs us in the true cause of sickness, sin, he involves a tacit, nay, he expresses an express rebuke, and increpation, and in beginning at the dimittuntur peccata, at the forgiveness of sins, tells him in his ear, that his spiritual health should have been preferred to his bodily, and the cure of his soul before his palsy; that first the priest should have been, and then the physician might be consulted. That which Christ does to his new-adopted son here, the wise man says to his son, My son, in thy sickness be not negligent; but wherein is his diligence required, or to be expressed in that which follows, Pray unto the Lord, and he will make thee whole; but upon what conditions, or what preparations? Leave off from sin, order thy hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. Is this all? needs there no declaration, no testimony of this? Yes, give a sweet savour, and a memorial of fine flour, and make a fat offering, as not being; that is, as though thou wert dead: give, and give that which thou givest in thy lifetime, as not being. And when all this is piously, and religiously done, thou hast repented, restored, amended, and given to pious uses, then, says he there, Give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him. For if we proceed otherwise, if we begin with the physician, physic is a curse; He that sinneth before his Maker, let him fall into the hands of the physician, says the wise man there: it is not, let him come into the hands of the physician, as though that were a curse, but let him fall, let him cast and throw himself into his hands, and rely upon natural means, and leave out all consideration of his other, and worse disease, and the supernatural physic for that. Asa had a great deliverance from God, when the prophet 23 Ecclus. xxxviii. 9. |