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 unrighteousness, 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, balketh 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 constructions. What man could be so holy, as he, that was 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 hardheartedness; 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, of 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.

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 of mercy, deserves just admiration. If the cynic sought in the market for a man amongst men, well may we seek amongst men for a convert. Neither is the difficulty less than the rareness. The strong man hath the possession: all passages are blocked up, all helps barred, by the treachery of our nature. If any soul be rescued from these spiritual wickednesses, it is the praise of him, that doth wonders alone.

But whom do I see wondering? The multitude. The unlearned beholders follow that act with wonder, which the learned scribes entertain with obloquy. God hath revealed those things to babes, which he hath hid from the wise and prudent. With what scorn did those great rabbins speak of these sons of the earth; This people, that knows not the law, is accursed! Yet the mercy of God makes an advantage of their simplicity; in that they are therefore less subject to cavillation and incredulity: as contrarily, his justice causes the proud knowledge of others to lie as a block in their way, to the ready ascent unto the divine power of the Messiah. Let the pride of glorious adversaries disdain the poverty of the clients of the Gospel: it shall not repent us, to go to heaven with the vulgar, while their great ones go in state to perdition.

The multitude wondered. Who censured, but scribes; great doctors of the law, of the divinity of the Jews? What scribes, but those of Jerusalem, the most eminent academy of Judea? These were the men, who, out of their deep reputed judgment, cast these foul aspersions upon Christ. Great wits ofttimes mislead both the owners and followers. How many shall once wish they had been born dullards, yea idiots, when they shall find their wit to have barred them out of Heaven! Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made the wisdom of the world foolishness? Say the world what it will, a dram of holiness is worth a pound of wit. Let others censure with the scribes; let me wonder with the multitude.

What could malice say worse? He casteth out devils, through Beelzebub, the prince of devils. The Jews well knew, that the gods of the heathen were no other than devils; amongst whom, for that

the Lord of Flies (so called, whether for the concourse of flies to the abundance of his sacrifices, or for his aid implored against the infestation of those swarms,) was held the chief; therefore they stile him the Prince of Devils. There is a subordination of spirits; some higher in degree, some inferior to others. Our Saviour himself tells us of the Devil and his angels, Messengers are inferior to those that send them. The seven devils, that entered into the swept and garnished house, were worse than the former. Neither can principalities, and powers, and governors, and princes of the darkness of this world, design others, than several ranks of evil angels. There can be no being, without some kind of order; there can be no order in parity. If we look up into heaven, there is the King of Gods, the Lord of Lords; Higher than the Highest: if to the earth, there are monarchs, kings, princes, peers, people. If we look down to hell, there is the Prince of Devils. They labour for confusion, that call for parity. What should the Church do with such a form, as is not exemplified in heaven, in earth, in hell?

One devil, according to their supposition, may be used, to cast out another. How far the command of one spirit over another may extend, it is a secret of infernal state, too deep for the inquiry of men. The thing itself is apparent: upon compact and precontracted composition, one gives way to other, for the common advantage. As we see in the commonwealth of cheaters and cutpurses, one doth the fact, another is feed to bring it out and to procure restitution: both are of the trade, both conspire to the fraud; the actor falls not out with the revealer, but divides with him that cunning spoil.

One malicious miscreant sets the Devil on work, to the inflicting of disease or death; another, upon agreement, for a further spiritual gain, takes him off: there is a devil in both. And if there seem more bodily favour, there is no less spiritual danger in the latter in the one, Satan wins the agent; the suitor, in the other. It will be no cause of discord in hell, that one devil gives ease to the body which another tormented, that both may triumph in the gain of a soul.

O God, that any creature, which bears thine image, should not abhor to be beholding to the powers of hell for aid, for advice! Is it not because there is not a God in Israel, that men go to inquire of the god of Ekron? Can men be so sottish to think, that' the vowed enemy of their souls can offer them a bait without a hook? What evil is there in the city, which the Lord hath not done? what is there, which he cannot as easily redress? He wounds; he heals again and if he will not, It is the Lord, let him do what seems good in his eyes. If he do not deliver us, he will crown our faithfulnesss in a patient perseverance. The wounds of God are better than the salves of Satan.

Was it possible, that the wit of envy could devise so high a slander? Beelzebub was a god of the Heathen; therefore herein they accuse him for an idolater: Beelzebub was a devil to the Jews; therefore they accuse him for a conjurer: Beelzebub was the chief

of devils; therefore they accuse him for an arch-exorcist, for the worst kind of magician. Some professors of this black art, though their work be devilish, yet they pretend to do it in the name of Jesus; and will presumptuously seem to do that by command, which is secretly transacted by agreement. The scribes accuse Christ of a direct compact with the Devil, and suppose both a league and familiarity; which, by the law of Moses, in the very hand of a Saul, was no other than deadly. Yea, so deep doth this wound reach, that our Saviour, searching it to the bottom, finds no less in it, than the sin against the Holy Ghost; inferring hereupon that dreadful sentence of the irremissibleness of that sin unto death. And if this horrible crimination were cast upon thee, O Saviour, in whom the Prince of this World found nothing, what wonder is it, if we, thy sinful servants, be branded on all sides with evil tongues?

Yea, which is yet more, how plain is it, that these men forced their tongue to speak this slander against their own heart! Else, this blasphemy had been only against the Son of Man; not against the Holy Ghost: but now, that the Searcher of Hearts finds it to be no less than against the Blessed Spirit of God, the spite must needs be obstinate; their malice doth wilfully cross their conscience. Envy never regards how true, but how mischievous. So it may gall or kill, it cares little whether with truth or falsehood. For us, Blessed are we, when men revile us, and say all manner of evil of us, for the name of Christ. For them, What reward shall be given to thee, thou false tongue? Even sharp arrows, with hot burning coals; yea those very coals of hell, from which thou wert enkindled.

There was yet a third sort, that went a midway betwixt wonder and censure. These were not so malicious, as to impute the miracle to a satanical operation. They confess it good, but not enough; and therefore urge Christ to a further proof: Though thou hast cast out this dumb devil, yet this is no sufficient argument of thy Divine power. We have yet seen nothing from thee, like those ancient miracles of the times of our forefathers. Joshua caused the sun to stand still; Elijah brought fire down from heaven; Samuel astonished the people with thunder and rain in the midst of harvest: if thou wouldst command our belief, do somewhat like to these. The casting out of a devil shews thee to have some power over hell; shew us now, that thou hast no less power

over heaven."

There is a kind of unreasonableness of desire, and insatiableness, in infidelity it never knows when it hath evidence enough. This, which the Jews overlooked, was a more irrefragable demonstration of Divinity, than that, which they desired. A devil was more than a meteor, or a parcel of an element; to cast out a devil by command, more than to command fire from heaven. Infidelity ever loves to be her own carver.

No son can be more like a father, than these Jews to their progenitors in the Desert. That there might be no fear of degene

rating into good, they also of old tempted God in the Wilderness. First, they are weary of the Egyptian bondage, and are ready to fall out with God and Moses for their stay in those furnaces. By ten miraculous plagues they are freed: and, going out of those confines, the Egyptians follow them; the sea is before them: now they are more afflicted with their liberty, than their servitude: the sea yields way; the Egyptians are drowned. And now that they are safe on the other shore, they tempt the Providence of God for water; the rock yields it them: then, no less for bread and meat; God sends them manna and quails; they cry out of the food of angels. Their present enemies in the way are vanquished; they whine at the men of measures in the heart of Canaan. Nothing from God, but mercy; nothing from them, but temptations.

Their true brood, both in nature and in sin, had abundant proofs of the Messiah; if curing the blind, lame, diseased, deaf, dumb, ejecting devils, overruling the elements, raising the dead, could have been sufficient: yet still they must have a sign from heaven; and shut up in the stile of the tempter, If thou be the Christ.

The gracious heart is credulous: even where it sees not, it believes; and where it sees but a little, it believes a great deal. Neither doth it presume to prescribe unto God, what and how he shall work; but takes what it finds, and unmoveably rests in what it takes. Any miracle, no miracle, serves enough for their assent, who have built their faith upon the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Luke viii.

MATTHEW CALLED.

THE number of the apostles was not yet full. One room is left void for a future occupant. Who can but expect, that it is reserved for some eminent person? and behold, Matthew the publican is the man!

Oh the strange election of Christ! Those other disciples, whose calling is recorded, were from the fisher-boat; this, from the tollbooth: they were unlettered; this, infamous. The condition was not in itself sinful; but, as the taxes which the Romans imposed on God's free people were odious, so the collectors, the farmers of them, abominable. Besides that it was hard to hold that seat without oppression, without exaction. One, that best knew it, branded it with polling and sycophancy. And now, behold a griping publican called to the family, to the apostleship, to the secretaryship of God. Who can despair in the conscience of his unworthiness, when he sees this pattern of the free bounty of him, that calleth us? Merits do not carry it in the gracious election of God, but his mere favour.

There sat Matthew the publican, busy in his counting-house; reckoning up the sums of his rentals; taking up his arrearages; and wrangling for denied duties; and did so little think of a Sa