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a broken and contrite heart, thou wilt not, O Lord, O Lord, do

not reject.

It is only thy word, which gives what it requires; comfort and confidence. Had any other shaken her by the shoulder, and cheered her up against those oppressive passions, it had been but waste wind. No voice, but his, who hath power to remit sin, can secure the heart from the conscience of sin, from the pangs of conscience: In the midst of the sorrows of my heart, thy comforts, O Lord, thy comforts only, have power to refresh my soul. Her cure was Christ's act, yet he gives the praise of it to her; Thy faith hath made thee whole. He had said before, Virtue is gone out from me; now, he acknowledges a virtue inherent in her. It was his virtue, that cured her; yet he graciously casts this work upon her faith. Not that her faith did it by way of merit, by way of efficiency, but by way of impetration. So much did our Saviour regard that faith, which he had wrought in her, that he will honour it with the success of her cure. Such, and the same, is still the remedy of our spiritual diseases, our sins: By faith, we are justified; by faith, we are saved. Thou only, O Saviour, canst heal us; thou wilt not heal us, but by our faith: not as it issues from us, but as it appropriates thee. The sickness is ours, the remedy is ours: the sickness is our own by nature; the remedy ours by thy grace, both working and accepting it. Our faith is no less from thee, than thy cure is from our faith.

O happy dismission, Go in peace! How unquiet had this poor soul formerly been! She had no outward peace with her neighbours; they shunned and abhorred her presence, in this condition; yea, they must do so. She had no peace in body; that was pained and vexed with so long and foul a disease. Much less had she peace in her mind, which was grievously disquieted with sorrow for her sickness, with anger and discontentment at her torturing physicians, with fear of the continuance of so bad a guest. Her soul, for the present, had no peace, from the sense of her guiltiness in the carriage of this business; from the conceived displeasure of him, to whom she came for comfort and redress. At once, now doth our Saviour calm all these storms; and, in one word and act, restores to her peace with her neighbours, peace in herself; peace in body, in mind, in soul: Go in peace. Even so, Lord, it was for thee only, who art the Prince of Peace, to bestow thy peace where thou pleasest. Our body, mind, soul, estate is thine; whether to afflict, or ease. It is a wonder, if all of us do not ail somewhat. In vain shall we speak peace to ourselves, in vain shall the world speak peace to us, except thou say to us, as thou didst to this distressed soul, Go in peace. Matthew ix. Luke viii.

JAIRUS AND HIS DAUGHTER.

How troublesome did the people's importunity seem to Jairus! That great man came to sue unto Jesus, for his dying daughter.

The throng of the multitude intercepted him. Every man is most sensible of his own necessity. It is no straining courtesy, in the challenge of our interest in Christ: there is no unmannerliness, in our strife for the greatest share in his presence and benediction.

That only child of this Ruler lay a dying, when he came to solicit Christ's aid; and was dead, while he solicited it. There was hope, in her sickness; in her extremity, there was fear; in her death, despair and impossibility, as they thought, of help: Thy daughter is dead; trouble not the Master. When we have to do with a mere finite power, this word were but just. He was a prophet, no less than a king, that said, While the child was yet alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, Who can tell, whether God will be gracious to me, that the child may live? But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. But, since thou hast to do with an omnipotent agent, know now, O thou faithless messenger, that death can be no bar to his power. How well would it have become thee, to have said, " Thy daughter is dead; but who can tell, whether thy God and Saviour will not be gracious to thee, that the child may revive? Cannot he, in whose hands are the issues of death, bring her back again?"

Here were more manners, than faith; Trouble not the Master. Infidelity is all for ease; and thinks every good work tedious. That, which nature accounts troublesome, is pleasing and delightful to grace. Is it any pain, for a hungry man to eat? O Saviour, it was thy meat and drink to do thy Father's will; and his Will was, that thou shouldest bear our griefs, and take away our sorrows. It cannot be thy trouble, which is our happiness, that we may still sue to thee.

The messenger could not so whisper his ill news, but Jesus heard it. Jairus hears that he feared; and was now heartless, with so sad tidings. He, that resolved not to trouble the Master, meant to take so much more trouble to himself, and would now yield to a hopeless sorrow. He, whose work it is to comfort the afflicted, rouseth up the dejected heart of that pensive father: Fear not; believe only, and she shall be made whole.

The word was not more cheerful, than difficult. Fear not! Who can be insensible of so great an evil? Where death hath once seized, who can but doubt he will keep his hold? No less hard was it, not to grieve for the loss of an only child, than not to fear the continuance of the cause of that grief.

In a perfect faith, there is no fear: by how much more we fear, by so much less we believe. Well are these two then coupled, Fear not, believe only. O Saviour, if thou didst not command us somewhat beyond nature, it were no thank to us to obey thee. While the child was alive, to believe that it might recover, it was no hard task; but now that she was fully dead, to believe she should live again, was a work not easy for Jairus to apprehend, though easy for thee to effect: yet must that be believed, else there is no capacity of so great a mercy. As love, so faith is stronger than death; making those bonds no other, than, as Samson did his

withes, like threads of tow. How much natural impossibility is there, in the return of these bodies from the dust of their earth, into which, through many degrees of corruption, they are at the last mouldered! Fear not, O my soul; believe only: it must, it shall be done.

The sum of Jairus his first suit was for the health, not for the resuscitation, of his daughter; now that she was dead, he would, if he durst, have been glad to have asked her life. And now, behold, our Saviour bids him expect both her life and her health; Thy daughter shall be made whole: alive, from her death; whole, from her disease. Thou didst not, O Jairus, thou daredst not ask so much as thou receivest. How glad wouldest thou have been, since this last news, to have had thy daughter alive, though weak and sickly! Now thou shalt receive her, not living only, but sound and vigorous. Thou dost not, O Saviour, measure thy gifts by our petitions, but by our wants and thine own mercies.

This work might have been as easily done, by an absent command; the power of Christ was there, while himself was away: but he will go personally to the place, that he might be confessed the Author of so great a miracle.

O Saviour, thou lovest to go to the house of mourning: thy chief pleasure is the comfort of the afflicted.

What a confusion there is in worldly sorrow! The mother shrieks, the servants cry out, the people make lamentation, the minstrels howl and strike dolefully; so as the ear might question, whether the ditty or the instrument were more heavy. If ever expressions of sorrow sound well, it is when death leads the quire. Soon doth our Saviour charm this noise, and turns these unseasonable mourners, whether formal or serious, out of doors. Not that he dislikes music, whether to condole or comfort; but that he had life in his eye, and would have them know that he held these funeral ceremonies to be too early, and long before their time: Give place; for the maid is not dead, but sleepeth. Had she been dead, she had but slept; now she was not dead, but asleep, because he meant this nap of death should be so short, and her awakening so speedy. Death and sleep are alike to him, who can cast whom he will into the sleep of death, and awake when and whom he pleaseth out of that deadly sleep.

Before, the people and domestics of Jairus held Jesus for a prophet; now, they took him for a dreamer: Not dead, but asleep! They, that came to mourn, cannot now forbear to laugh." Have we piped at so many funerals, and seen and lamented so many corpses, and cannot we distinguish betwixt sleep and death? The eyes are set; the breath is gone; the limbs are stiff and cold. Who ever died, if she do but sleep?" How easily may our reason or sense befool us in Divine matters! Those, that are competent judges in natural things, are ready to laugh God to scorn, when he speaks beyond their compass; and are by him justly laughed to scorn, for their unbelief. Vain and faithless men! as if that unlimited power of the Almighty could not make good his own word; and turn either sleep into death, or death into sleep, at pleasure.

Ere many minutes, they shall be ashamed of their error and incredulity.

There were witnesses enough of her death; there shall not be many of her restoring. Three choice disciples and the two parents are only admitted, to the view and testimony of this miraculous work. The eyes of those incredulous scoffers were not worthy of this honour. Our infidelity makes us incapable of the secret favours and the highest counsels of the Almighty.

What did these scorners think and say, when they saw him putting the minstrels and people out of doors?" Doubtless, the maid is but asleep; the man fears lest the noise shall awake her; we must speak and tread softly, that we disquiet her not: What will he and his disciples do the while? Is it not to be feared, they will startle her out of her rest?" Those, that are shut out from the participation of God's counsels, think all his words and projects no better than foolishness.

But art thou, O Saviour, ever the more discouraged, by the derision and censure of these scornful unbelievers? Because fools jeer thee, dost thou forbear thy work? Surely, I do not perceive, that thou heedest them, save for contempt; or carest more for their words, than their silence. It is enough, that thine act shall soon honour thee, and convince them. He took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise; and her spirit came again, and she arose straightway.

How could that touch, that call, be other than effectual? He, who made that hand, touched it; and he, who shall once say, Arise, ye dead, said now, Maid, arise. Death cannot but obey him, who is the Lord of Life. The soul is ever equally in his hand, who is the God of Spirits: it cannot but go and come at his command. When he says, Maid, arise, the now-dissolved spirit knows his office, his place; and instantly reassumes that room, which by his appointment it had left.

O Saviour, if thou do but bid my soul to arise from the death of sin, it cannot lie still; if thou bid my body to arise from the grave, my soul cannot but glance down from her heaven, and animate it. In vain, shall my sin or my grave offer to withhold me from thee.

The maid revives: not now to languish for a time upon her sickbed, and by some faint degrees to gather an insensible strength; but, at once, she arises from her death and from her couch; at once, she puts off her fever with her dissolution; she finds her life and her feet, at once; at once, she finds her feet and her stomach: He commanded to give her meat. Omnipotency doth not use to go the pace of nature. All God's immediate works are, like himself, perfect. He, that raised her supernaturally, could have so fed her. It was never the purpose of his power, to put ordinary means out of office. Luke viii

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THE MOTION OF THE TWO FIERY DISCIPLES

REPELLED.

THE time drew on, wherein Jesus must be received up. He must take death in his way. Calvary is in his passage to mount Olivet. He must be lift up to the cross, thence to climb into his heaven. Yet this comes not into mention; as if all the thought of death were swallowed up in this victory over death. Neither, O Saviour, is it otherwise with us, the weak members of thy mystical body. We must die; we shall be glorified. What if death stand before us? we look beyond him, at that transcendent glory. How should we be dismayed with that pain, which is attended with a blessed immortality?

The strongest receipt against death is the happy estate that follows it; next to that, is the fore-expectation of it and resolution against it: He stedfastly set his face, to go to Jerusalem; Jerusalem, the nest of his enemies, the amphitheatre of his conflicts, the fatal place of his death. Well did he know the plots and ambushes, that were laid for him, and the bloody issue of those designs: yet, he will go; and goes, resolved for the worst. It is a sure and wise way, to send our thoughts before us, to grapple with those evils, which we know must be encountered. The enemy is half overcome, that is well prepared for. The strongest mischief may be outfaced, with a seasonable fore-resolution. There can be no greater disadvantage, than the suddenness of a surprisal. O God, what I have not the power to avoid, let me have the wisdom to expect.

The way from Galilee to Judea lay through the region of Samaria, if not the city. Christ now, towards the end of his preaching, could not but be attended with a multitude of followers. It was necessary there should be purveyors and harbingers, to procure lodgings and provision for so large a troop. Some of his own retinue are addressed to this service. They seek not for palaces and delicacies, but for house-room and victuals. It was he, whose the earth was and the fulness thereof, whose the heavens are and the mansions therein; yet he, who could have commanded angels, sues to Samaritans: he, that filled and comprehended heaven, sends for shelter in a Samaritan cottage. It was thy choice, O Saviour, to take upon thee the shape, not of a prince, but of a servant. How can we either neglect means or despise homeliness, when thou, the God of all the World, wouldst stoop to the suit of so poor a provision?

We know well, in what terms the Samaritans stood with the Jews; so much more hostile, as they did more symbolize in matter of religion. No nations were mutually so hateful to each other. A Samaritan's bread was no better than swine's-flesh. Their very fire, and water, was not more grudged, than infectious. The looking towards Jerusalem was here cause enough of repulse. No enunity is so desperate, as that, which arises from matter of reli

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