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are we, if, like wise soldiers, we guard the vital parts. While the soul is kept sound from impatience, from distrust, our Enemy may afflict us, he cannot hurt us.

They sue for a sufferance; not daring other, than to grant, that, without the permission of Christ, they could not hurt a very swine. If it be fearful, to think how great things evil spirits can do with permission; it is comfortable to think, how nothing they can do without permission. We know, they want not malice to destroy the whole frame of God's work; but of all, man; of all men, Christians: but, if without leave they cannot set upon a hog, what can they do to the living images of their Creator? They cannot offer us so much as a suggestion, without the permission of our Saviour. And can he, that would give his own most precious blood for us, to save us from evil, wilfully give us over to evil?

It is no news, that wicked spirits wish to do mischief: it is news, that they are allowed it. If the Owner of All Things should stand upon his absolute command, who can challenge him for what he thinks fit to do with his creature? The first foal of the ass is commanded, under the Law, to have his neck broken. What is that to us? The creatures do that, they were made for, if they may serve any way to the glory of their Maker.

But seldom ever doth God leave his actions unfurnished with such reasons, as our weakness may reach unto. There were sects amongst these Jews, that denied spirits. They could not be more evidently, more powerfully convinced, than by this event. Now shall the Gadarenes see, from what a multitude of devils they were delivered; and how easy it had been, for the same power, to have allowed these spirits to seize upon their persons, as well as their swine. Neither did God this, without a just purpose of their castigation. His judgments are righteous, where they are most secret. Though we cannot accuse these inhabitants of ought, yet he could; and thought good thus to mulct them. And if they had not wanted grace to acknowledge it, it was no small favour of God, that he would punish them in their swine, for that, which he might have avenged upon their bodies and souls. Our goods are furthest off us: if but in these we smart, we must confess to find mercy.

Sometimes, it pleaseth God to grant the suits of wicked men and spirits, in no favour to the suitors. He grants an ill suit, and withholds a good: he grants an ill suit in judgment, and holds back a good one in mercy. The Israelites ask meat; he gives quails to their mouths, and leanness to their souls. The chosen vessel wishes Satan taken off, and hears only, My grace is sufficient for thee. We may not evermore measure favours by condescent. These devils doubtless receive more punishment for that harmful act, wherein they are heard. If we ask what is either unfit to receive or unlawful to beg, it is a great favour of our God to be denied.

Those spirits, which would go into the swine by permission, go out of the man by command: they had stayed long, and are

ejected suddenly. The immediate works of God are perfect in an instant, and do not require the aid of time for their maturation.

No sooner are they cast out of the man, than they are in the swine. They will lose no time, but pass, without intermission, from one mischief to another. If they hold it a pain not to be doing evil, why is it not our delight to be ever doing good?

The impetuousness was no less than the speed. The herd was carried with violence from a steep-down place into the lake, and was choked. It is no small force, that could do this; but if the swine had been so many mountains, these spirits, upon God's permission, had thus transported them. How easily can they carry those souls, which are under their power, to destruction! Unclean beasts, that wallow in the mire of sensuality, brutish drunkards transforming themselves by excess, even they are the swine, whom the legion carries headlong to the pit of perdition.

The wicked spirits have their wish; the swine are choked in the waves. What ease is this to them? Good God, that there should be any creature that seeks contentment in destroying, in tormenting the good creatures of his Maker! This is the diet of hell. Those fiends feed upon spite towards man, so much more as he doth more resemble his Creator; towards all other living substances, so much more as they may be more useful to man.

The swine ran down violently; what marvel is it if their keepers fled? That miraculous work, which should have drawn them to Christ, drives them from him. They run with the news; the country comes in with clamour: The whole multitude of the coun try about besought him to depart. The multitude is a beast of many heads; every head hath a several mouth, and every mouth a several tongue, and every tongue a several accent; every head hath a several brain, and every brain thoughts of their own: so as it is hard to find a multitude, without some division. At least seldom ever hath a good motion found a perfect accordance: it is not so unfrequent, for a multitude to conspire in evil. Generality of assent is no warrant for any act. Common error carries away many, who inquire not into the reason of ought, but the practice. The way to hell is a beaten road, through the many feet that tread it. When vice grows into fashion, singularity is a virtue.

There was not a Gadarene found, that either dehorted his fellows, or opposed the motion. It is a sign of a people given up to judgment, when no man makes head against projects of evil. Alas! what can one strong man do, against a whole throng of wickedness? Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance, that God forbears to plague, where he finds but a sprinkling of faith. Happy are they, who (like unto the celestial bodies, which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere, yet creep on their own ways) keep on the courses of their own holiness, against the swinge of common corruptions: they shall both deliver their own souls, and help to withhold judgment from others.

The Gadarenes sue to Christ for his departure. It is too much

favour to attribute this to their modesty, as if they held themselves unworthy of so divine a guest. Why then did they fall upon this suit, in a time of their loss? Why did they not tax themselves, and intimate a secret desire of that, which they durst not beg? It is too much rigour, to attribute it to the love of their hogs, and an anger at their loss: then they had not entreated, but expelled him. It was their fear, that moved this harsh suit: a servile fear of danger to their persons, to their goods; lest he, that could so absolutely command the devils, should have set these tormentors upon them; lest their other demoniacs should be dispossessed with like loss.

I cannot blame these Gadarenes, that they feared. This power was worthy of trembling at. Their fear was unjust: they should have argued; "This man hath power over men, beasts, devils: it is good having him to our friend; his presence is our safety and protection." Now they contrarily mis-infer; "Thus powerful is he: it is good he were further off."

What miserable and pernicious misconstructions do men make of God; of divine attributes and actions!" God is omnipotent, able to take infinite vengeance of sin; oh, that he were not! He is provident; I may be careless: he is merciful; I may sin: he is holy; let him depart from me, for I am a sinful man." How witty sophisters are natural men, to deceive their own souls, to rob themselves of a God! O Saviour, how worthy are they to want thee, that wish to be rid of thee! Thou hast just cause to be weary of us, even while we sue to hold thee; but, when once our wretched unthankfulness grows weary of thee, who can pity us, to be punished with thy departure? Who can say, it is other than righteous, that thou shouldst regest one day upon us, Depart from me, ye wicked. Matthew viii. Mark v. Luke viii.

CONTEMPLATIONS.

BOOK IV.

To the only honour and glory of God my Saviour; and to the benefit and behoof of his blessed Spouse, the Church; I do, in all humility, devote myself and all my Meditations,

The weak and unworthy Servant of both,

J. E.·

TO THE READER.

THOSE few spare hours, which I could either borrow or steal from the many employments of my busy Diocese, I have gladly bestowed upon these, not more recreative than useful, Contemplations, for which I have been, some years, a debtor to the Church of God: now, in a care to satisfy the desires of many and my own pre-engagement, I send them forth into the light. My Reader shall find the discourse in all these passages more large; and in the latter, as the occasion gives, more fervent: and if he shall miss some remarkable stories, let him be pleased to know, that I have purposely omitted those pieces, which consist rather of speech than of act, and those that are in respect of the matter coincident to these I have selected. I have so done my task, as fearing, not affecting length; and as careful to avoid the cloying of my reader with other men's thoughts. Such as they are, I wish them, as I hope they shall be, beneficial to God's Church; and in them intend to set up my rest: beseeching my reader that he will mutually exchange his prayers for and with me, who am the unworthiest of the servants of Christ,

J. E.

THE FAITHFUL CANAANITE.

IT was our Saviour's trade to do good: therefore he came down from heaven to earth; therefore he changed one station of earth for another. Nothing more commends goodness, than generality and diffusion, whereas, reservedness and close-handed restraint blemish the glory of it. The sun stands not still in one point of heaven, but walks his daily round; that all the inferior world may share of his influences, both in heat and light. Thy bounty, O

Saviour, did not affect the praise of fixedness, but motion: one while, I find thee at Jerusalem; then, at Capernaum; soon after, in the utmost verge of Galilee; never, but doing good.

But, as the sun, though he daily compass the world, yet never walks from under his line, never goes beyond the turning points of the longest and shortest day; so neither didst thou, O Saviour, pass the bounds of thine own peculiar people. Thou wouldst move, but not wildly; not out of thine own sphere: wherein thy glorified estate exceeds thine humbled, as far as heaven is above earth. Now thou art lift up, thou drawest all men unto thee; there are now no lists, no limits of thy gracious visitations; but as the whole earth is equidistant from heaven, so all the motions of the world lie equally open to thy bounty.

Neither yet didst thou want outward occasions of thy removal: perhaps the very importunity of the Scribes and Pharisees, in obtruding their traditions, drove thee thence; perhaps, their unjust offence at thy doctrine. There is no readier way to lose Christ, than to clog him with human ordinances; than to spurn at his heavenly instructions. He doth not always subduce his spirit with his visible presence; but his very outward withdrawing is worthy of our sighs, worthy of our tears. Many a one may say, Lord, if thou hadst been here, my soul had not died.

Thou art now with us, O Saviour, thou art with us in a free and plentiful fashion; how long, thou knowest: we know our deservings, and fear. Oh teach us how happy we are in such a guest; and give us grace to keep thee. Hadst thou walked within the Phoenician borders, we could have told how to have made glad constructions of thy mercy, in turning to the Gentiles: thou, that couldest touch the lepers without uncleanness, couldest not be defiled with aliens: but we know the partition-wall was not yet broken down; and thou, that didst charge thy disciples not to walk into the way of the Gentiles, wouldest not transgress thine own rule. Once, we are sure, thou camest to the utmost point of the bounds of Galilee: as not ever confined to the heart of Jewry, thou wouldest sometimes bless the outer skirts with thy presence. No angle is too obscure for the Gospel: the land of Zabulon and the land of Nepthali, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; the people which sat in darkness saw great light.

The sun is not scornful, but looks with the same face upon every plot of earth. Not only the stately palaces and pleasant gar dens are visited by his beams, but mean cottages, but neglected bogs and moors. God's word is like himself, no accepter of persons: the wild Kern, the rude Scythian, the savage Indian are alike to it. The mercy of God will be sure to find out those that belong to his election, in the most secret corners of the world; like as his judgments will fetch his enemies, from under the hills and rocks. The Good Shepherd walks the wilderness, to seek one sheep strayed from many. If there be but one Syrophoenician sou. to be gained to the Church, Christ goes to the coasts of Tyre and

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