The Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. St. Luke ix. 56.

O Saviour, what do we seek for any precedent but Thine, whose Name we challenge! Thou camest to Thine own, Thine own received Thee not. Didst Thou call for fire from heaven upon them? Didst Thou not rather send down water from Thy compassionate eyes, and weep for them by whom Thou must bleed? Then are our actions and intentions praiseworthy, and warrantable, when they accord with Thine.

O Saviour, when we look into those sacred acts of Thine, we find many a life which Thou preservedst from perishing, some that had perished, by Thee recalled; never any by Thee destroyed. To man, how ever favourable and indulgent wert Thou! So repelled as Thou wert, so reviled, so persecuted, sold, betrayed, apprehended, arraigned, condemned, crucified; yet what one man didst Thou strike dead for these heinous indignities? Yea, when one of Thine enemies lost but an ear, Thou gavest that ear to him who came to take life from Thee. How can we then enough love and praise Thy mercy, O Thou Preserver of men! How should we imitate Thy saving and beneficent disposition towards mankind! as knowing, the more we can help to save, the nearer we come to Thee that camest to save all.-(Bishop Hall.)

That I might by all means save some. 1 Cor. ix. 22.

D

As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read. St. Luke iv. 16.

In all particulars He conformed to the established rules of the synagogue; and the same attention He paid to all the circumstantial rites of the passover in their prescribed order. In all the evangelists you cannot find, that when He came there, He differed the least tittle from the custom and order that was constantly used by the church at that solemnity. Nay, they that are versed in the Jews' records, and see their customs there, may show you how He followed the rubrics and ritual of that passover from point to point. His manner of sitting at the table, His beginning the meal with a cup of wine, His ending it with a cup of blessing, His using bread and wine, His concluding with a psalm; and indeed His whole demeanour at the meal, compared with the Jews' rubric and custom for the solemnity, does clearly speak that He kept close communion with the whole church in that great symbol of communion. He that was to be the paschal Lamb Himself, and to fulfil what the typical ordinance signified, would not, might not, confound or cross the constant received order of that solemnity.-(Lightfoot's Works, vi. p. 221.)

If any man seem to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the churches of God. 1 Cor. xi. 16.

The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay His head. St. Matt. viii. 20.

Who can now complain of want, when he hears his Lord and Saviour but thus provided for? He could have brought down with Him a celestial house, and have pitched it here below, too glorious for human eyes to have looked upon it; He could have commanded all the precious things that lie shrouded in the bowels of the earth, to have made up a majestical palace for Him, to the dazzling of the eyes of all beholders; He could have taken up the stateliest court that any earthly monarch possessed, for His peculiar habitation; but His straitness was spiritual, and heavenly; and He that owned all would have nothing, that He might sanctify want unto us, and that He might teach us, by His blessed example, to sit down contented with anything, with nothing.(Bishop Hall.)

Can I, without reservation, say, Master, I will follow Thee whithersoever Thou goest?-We must bid all things stand aside, and tell them that they have no interest at all in us, when we are in pursuit of so great a good; the love of which will soon reconcile us to the hardest duties, and endear to us the most self-denying courses. It will alter the countenance of sufferings, and make all the troubles of this life cast a kinder aspect on us. (Bishop Patrick.)

Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. 2 Tim. ii. 3.

But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not : and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. St. Luke xxii. 32.

"And no better duties can wee perform to this noble voiage now in hand than earnestly to commend it to the Lord. Men may furnish it, but GOD must blesse it, and praier must procure that blessing.-Remember the end of this voiage is the destruction of the deuel's kingdome, and propagation of the Gospell. Are not these ends worthy of thy praiers? Remember thy

brethren, who have ingaged their persons and aduentured their liues to lay the first foundation and doe now live in want of many comforts and pleasures which thou at home enioiest. Are not these men's souls worthy of thy praiers? If thou canst doe nothing else, send up thy praiers to heaven for them.-Goe forward therefore (to Lord de La Warre) in the strength of the Lord, and make mention of His righteousnesse only. Looke not at the gaine and aduancement of thy house, that may follow and fall upon thee; but looke at those high and better ends that concerne the kingdom of GOD. Remember thou art a generall of English men, nay, a generall of Christian men; therefore principally looke to religion. You goe to commend it to the heathen; then practise it yourselues; make the Name of Christ honourable, not hatefull unto them." (Sermon preached before Lord De la Warre, Governor of Virginia, by W. Crashaw, B.D., Feb. 21, 1609.)

Blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation. Phil. ii. 15.

In those days He did eat nothing. St. Luke iv. 2.

The design of the Holy Ghost being to expose Jesus to the temptation, He arms Himself with fasting, and prayer, and baptism, and the Holy Spirit, against the day of battle; He continues in the wilderness forty days and forty nights, without meat or drink, attending to the immediate addresses and colloquies with GOD; not suffering the interruption of meals, but representing His own and the necessities of all mankind with such affections and instances of spirit, love, and wisdom, as might express the excellency of His Person, and promote the work of our redemption; His conversation being in this interval but a resemblance of angelical perfection, and His fasts,-not an instrument of mortification, for He needed none, but an opportunity of prayer.

It may concern the prudence of religion to snatch at this occasion of duty, so far as the instance is imitable; prayer being an antidote against the poison (of temptation), and fasting a convenient disposition to intense, actual, and undisturbed prayer. And we may remember also, that we have been baptized and consigned with the Spirit of GOD, and then we put on Christ, and entering into battle put on the whole armour of righteousness; and therefore we may, by observing our strength, gather also our duty and greatest obligation to fight manfully, that we may triumph gloriously.-(Bishop Taylor.)

This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting. St. Mark ix. 29.