A Century of Sermons

God's gifts, I know it is so, yet it circumscribes our desires to ask a little, and no excess: and if you pray with Christ's words, and not with Christ's meaning, God will not bless, but curse your supplications. As the Fable goes of Dido, that she asked no more Land than an Ox Hide would compass; but she cut that Hide into small thongs, and took in as much ground as to build a City: so it is a cheat to ask God for bread and water, and to mean all manner of superfluity. The Morallists and Poets of the Heathen were wise men, and when they character the best and happiest times of the World, I am not presumptuous, but confident of my knowledge, that they all insist upon this, that the men of that Age studied not for their Diet, but took the voluntary Offerings of the Springs and Mountains. Now we have left that praise and happiness to the Beasts and Fowls of the air, who take the next thing they light upon to satisfy their thirst and hunger. Non fuit noverca nobis natura, ut homo sine tot artibus non possit vivere. It is our own fault that we consume our Revenues, and spend all our labor, as the Wiseman says, for the belly; Nature is not so much a Stepdame to us alone, that no less than two hundred Arts and Trades may be reckoned before his Table can be magnificently furnished.

This is the only conveniency of great sins, which are very expenceful, though not for the sin, yet for the charge sake they use to vanish away by little and little, I have the more hope my labor shall not be fruitless, to exhort you to fall back to some laudable measure of ancient frugality. Though it be a thing grown quite out of the constitution of your bodies to thirst for water, as my Text says, yet I would you would thirst less for wine: and as one said, though once our Savior was so gracious to turn water into wine, yet it were happy now on our part, if he would infuse such temperance into us, as to turn our wine into water. See into what luxury we have sopt our Souls in the revolution of time: see how we are metamorphosed in our appetite; those Wines which were wont to be sold by the Apothecaries, for a Drug, are now become every Meals liquor at our Tables; and Water which was the ordinary drink of man, now it is never used but as a Potion, and for some Medicinal operation: So that which was our Physic is become our ordinary Drink, and that which was our daily Drink is become our Physic. Satis est populo fluvius{que} Ceresque; though bread for hunger, and water for thirst are but a bare enough, yet such expressions from our Savior, who knows what is fittest for us; will make the most of us I hope ashamed, when we compare it with an Epicures too much.

But whether temperate or intemperate, whether the poor Beggar that drinks of the running Brook, or the rich Glutton that quaffs the blood of the Grape, at sundry times they feel a scarcity, and want of moisture, it is an affliction upon our nature that all men have their thirst. The Schoolmen ask, and which is more, they contend among themselves, whether hunger and thirst had befallen Mankind, if they had never sinned against the Lord? The Controversy comes to this issue. This heavenly part of us which God breathed into the body it is both Anima and Spiritus; a Soul and a Spirit: and therefore it causeth both an animal life, which consists in the faculties of nourishment, augmentation of every part, generation, &c. and it causeth by God's gracious gift a spiritual life, making this corruptible flesh of ours incorruptible, and transfusing many more of its own excellencies into this gross substance, and then it is a glorified Body. These by the Divine ordination were appointed after a large space to be one after another, so says St. Paul, That was not first which was spiritual, but that which was natural, and afterward that which is spiritual. It was necessary therefore while it was a natural body, that sustenance must be taken; and at such a time when man knew right well by his own constitution, that it was fit to repair nature (he could not err, and be deceived in that in the state of innocence) and at that time his appetite would call for it as a pleasant and wholesome thing to be taken; for you know what a loathing thing it is to take meat and drink into the mouth without an appetite. Here's the scruple plainly laid down before you, whether hunger and thirst did provoke such an appetite in man before he fell into disobedience? I answer that this Controversy is but a bare mistaking of a word. If hunger and thirst be largely taken for that sense which a man hath, how the stomach must be replenished for the maintenance of life: so Adam before he fell had sensum indigentiae, a far more exacting feeling than we have, when nature was in indigency, and must be supplied: but strictly and properly hunger and thirst habent adjunctam molestiam & cruciatum, they come upon us with some molestiousness and torment, and so they are only incident to wicked man, where punishment is manifold ways inflicted upon transgression. Where heat doth dry up moisture, and parch the juice of the veins, there our thirsty soul doth gape like a barren and dry Land, that is, when one elementary quality doth feed upon another, and consume it. But before sin entered into the World: there was such an orderly mixture of all parts in us, that the Elements were at peace in our Body, no quality did seek to over-master another, and corrupt it: but the pangs and girds of thirst did ensue upon just revenge; Reason proved rebellious to the Law of God; the sensual appetite grew rebellious to reason, and the distemperature of the body grew rebellious to appetite. Shall I need to tell you how the Israelites in a sore thirst were ready to renounce God in the Wilderness? or how the strength of Sampson fainted, till the Jaw bone besmeared with the blood of his Enemies did run with water? or how Darius in extremity of drought was glad to drink of a most putrefied puddle? Every man hath felt such anguish in himself at some time or other; every little scarceness threatens death, or is worse than death to them that want the friendship of God.

And as our appetite is never but sick of longing, so the body troubles it with a perpetual craving; that which it takes today is forgot tomorrow, as if it never had been, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. That which nourisheth the Soul of man must be immortal like the Soul; but that which nourisheth a corruptible Body, itself is corruptible. One lean Harvest in Egypt made seven rich ones be quite forgotten: A short Fast will gnaw the bowels, though Ahasuerus his long Feast had gone before it. Whatsoever you taste the pleasure of it is not remembered in a minute, the strength and virtue of it is gone in a few hours. A man that is grown to the end of a full age, if he would reckon by measure and proportion, how much waste in threescore and ten years one Belly hath made, it would make him wonder, and say to himself, am I run on the score so far for my daily sustenance? is it not due that my Carkass should rot in the Earth, or in the Sea, since my flesh hath been the consumption both of Sea and Land? And again, since we are born to that care and distress, that every day must have his several necessity of hunger and thirst, be not luxurious upon one entertainment, as if at once you would spend all the brood of nature, and leave nothing for tomorrow. To morrow must be cared for. You cannot say to your appetite, this is thy stint, and hereafter thou shalt have no more. It was but poor provision to send Hagar and her Child away with one Bottle of water into the desert Wilderness: when the Bottle was spent her desire did come again upon her like an armed man, for whosoever, &c.

Yet this is not meant altogether to throw us into affliction, that we must cater for the stomach every day: It makes us often cast down our eyes upon the necessities of the Poor; it makes us often lift up our eyes to the providence of our Heavenly Father; it compels the Societies of men to seek out many industrious Vocations, and to disrellish idleness. In these regards it was an extravagant Prayer which the Woman of Samaria made in the next verse, Sir, give me such water to drink as I may not thirst, neither come hither to draw. But in some particular persons God's vengeance is bent sore to vex their appetite, where water nor wine, nor any liquor hath virtue to satiate their thirst, when that which they drink doth them no good, but it is as if they had taken nothing. As God gave bread to the Israelites, but sent leanness withal into their souls. So Haggai brought news of the Lord's wrath unto the people, c. i. v. 6. Ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled. Some Heathen Lawgivers attempted to rate every private Family in their Cities what they should spend at their Board, and at last one of the wisest of them concluded, there could be no rule given in that case, because an heavenly hunger sometimes lights upon some men which devours in excess, and is not satisfied. It is the grace of God which gives meat in due season, so that health and comfort go together with it. I will borrow this Similitude to give it light. Sometimes when we go to Physic for any Disease, we are bidden to seeth such and such herbs in running water, and then to drink the water. We know it is not the water helpeth the sick man, but the decoction of the infusion. So it is not bread or drink considered barely in itself which doth nourish the body, but the blessing of God infused into it. When the Lord is pleased not to bless your victuals with his goodness, soak what you can into your skin, you shall thirst as if you never drank: and again, if He will let his power be shown in our weakness, you shall have the gift to abstain from all manner of liquors, as if you never thirsted.

Spiritus sanctus aliquando supplet locum cibi & potus in corpore, says St. Jerome; the Holy Ghost is called our Food, not only in a mystical sense, but sometimes God makes his Spirit supply the place of bodily refection, that we shall not need to ask for it. He that corroborated Elias to eat nothing for forty days, could have continued that Miracle upon his Servant forever. I will not reach for an instance beyond that Story which was the occasion of my Text. Our Savior came hungry and thirsty to Jacob 's Well, sent his Disciples into the Town to buy provision, in the interim demands drink of a strange Woman; yet falling into a Divine discourse with this Woman, forgets his hunger and thirst, and when food was come he did not regard it. And I am not incredulous of such Stories, which report of long continued Fasts in devout men, who spent their time so earnestly in Prayer, that they put their body to an agony, if not to an exstasie: in these the Spirit did support the Fabric of Nature, instead of corruptible things. It is a good thing, says St. Paul, that the heart be established with grace, and not with meats, Heb. xiii. 9. To conclude this Argument, God shown in his Prophet Elias, that he can find out sundry ways to uphold the state of our flesh. One way Elias was fed by a miraculous multiplication of Oil and Meal with the Widow of Sarephath. 2. By the Ministry of the Ravens in the Wilderness. 3. By putting strength into his bones, and marrow, forty days to need no reparation. And fourthly, by using the Creature with temperance and sobriety at his daily repast: so he did feel the continual urging of the appetite, as all men do upon the face of the earth, For whosoever drinketh, &c.

So far upon the Text literally, and upon no other waters, but such as the Woman of Samaria drew out of Jacob's Well. In the Allusion Interpreters make it extend to all kind of worldly pleasure, wherein our heart rejoiceth. This one piece of natures store, which gives but imperfect content, stands for all the rest, qui unam noverit omnes noverit: It is in everything else under the Sun as it is in this one Creature, our thoughts are not quiet when they have enjoyed them, no not a day; you cannot gulp so much down of these earthly delights but ye shall thirst again. The first thing which must be noted hereupon is the ground of the Similitude, that all these vanities which we affect are justly compared to waters that slide away. Whatsoever those fancies be that ensweeten your affections towards them, they come unto you like that young Prophet, whom Elisha sent to Jehu to Ramoth Gilead: says Elisha, Thou shalt anoint him King over Israel, then open the door, and fly, and tarry not. Salute him with good luck, and be gone. Good fortune, as we call it, sends nobody of her errand, but they dispatch as suddenly, and fly away. If any man that loves this World expostulate with himself that his pleasures dodg him, as thus, When will my delights continue for a time? when shall I have rest from thirsting after more, and enjoy that which is past? O says the Tempter it will come anon, you shall see it by and by. Alas what a sickness is expectation, which is no better than a doting delusion. As the Mother of Sisera looked out at a Window to see her Son come home in triumph, and she speaks to her wise Ladies in Deborah 's Song, Why are his Chariot wheels so long a coming? Look not after transitory delights, as if a thing which is always in fluxu could be made permanent, the Devil and all his Alchymistry cannot fix this Mercury. A River may be shut up by a Frost, and when the Sun thaws the ice, the stream runs his current again: So if you can attain to mortify your heart, as I think old Barzillai did, whose affections to all worldly alacrity were Ice and Marble, he cared not, he said to David, for the pomp of Jerusalem, nor for the taste of Meats, nor for the noise of Music; then your inward delights are a River shut up, the waters of comfort flit not out of the channel. But if you desire to have a Portion in this life, if you desire to taste a little of this honey, as Jonathan did, which hangs in the Trees round about you, plenus rimarum effluis, then the River opens, your earnings, and your desires will break out in a thousand Sluces.

If a Crystal Glass were durable, and not obnoxious to breaking with a fall, it would be as estimable perhaps as a Silver Plate, though the substance be not so precious. So the vanities of this World, which are but water, or rather froth that passeth away, had they been stable, and of long endurance, which God forbid (for then who almost could have withstood their temptation, as base as they are in themselves, I say, if they had not been so transitory, they had deceived many instead of that which our Savior commends so highly, the water of Eternal Life. But there is not such a terminus diminuens in nature, not any word of more rejectment, than to say, they consume as fast as they are born, they perish in their making, and come to a perpetual end. If I see a Meteor make a fair show in a bright Evening I may take it for a Star, but if it once glide in a flake of fire like a swift arrow, I contemn it for a putrid exhalation; so Honors and Riches make a gay sight, but because they are as transitory as dreams and shadows, I despise them. Shall I moil myself like the Grecian Champions at Olympus for no more than a Garland of leaves that will wither before I go to bed, for a corruptible Crown as St. Paul calls it? How little did the recompense answer the danger? These men, you will say were fit to be laughed at: As they lived in a silly Age, so they sped accordingly. But now the World's grown wiser, they do not aim at a few flowers, but at the whole Garden, as Ahab did; not at leaves, but at fruit I warrant you, and the trees that bear the fruit, and the Lands and Lordships that the trees grow upon, both to them and to their Posterity. This will come to some value, and not to be slighted like the labor of the Heathen for a Garland, or for a corruptible Crown. Yet for all this I will and must maintain, that worldlings deserve the application both of this, and of a worse Similitude. I confess that the Heathen in their emulatory Sports aimed at trifles, scarce fit to hang on the Posts of their Doors, and no way comely for their head: yet trifles, as they were, they engaged but a trifle against them, their limbs and body: but you venture your soul, the Divine part of Man, for things that may stick as little by you as a flower of the Garden: Aut habebunt finem sui, aut finem tui, either your pleasure, or your life, or the whole World may pass away in a moment. What a rotten pillar we lean upon, which is subject to the hazard of three imminent casualties? where lies the wit now? they hazard Grass for Grass, their Body against a Garland; you hazard Heaven against Earth, your Soul for Honors and increase of Substance: you stake the hope of Salvation, to drink in a few pleasing relishes of this World, which fall away like water that runneth apace.

Because time is as transitory as these fickle things of fortune which I speak of, therefore my discourse shall pass from this point without any longer trouble to you. Now St. Austin observes how the pleasures of our natural life are not simply resembled here to River waters, which you may take up with your hand, and are in every man's fight that passeth by. Our Savior was now at Jacob's Well, and he that will drink of it, must draw it out from a deep bottom: Et voluptas seculi est aqua in puteo, seu profunditate tenebrosâ: so our terrestrial pleasures are waters in a deep pit, with which if you desire to fill your Pitcher, (this Body I mean, which is an earthen Vessel) you must bestow your labor to fetch it up from a low Abyssus, from a dark profundity. They that plunge themselves into delights of all fashions and conditions, are not able to tell you how deep their own concupiscence is, nor how far it would descend into vanities. Tiberius the Emperor, I confess no common example, the worst not of men, but even of four-footed beasts. When he had run over all kind of pleasure that was known and common, then he puts down the Bucket into the Well to fetch up rarities of sensuality, and was so witty in nothing as to find out new studied pleasures, unheard of to all former impiety. Novum instituit officium à voluptatibus, says Suetonius, he created an Officer to reward such as brought forth new invented stratagems. Are you not afraid when you go so low into these vile earthly things, from one sensuality to another, deeper and deeper, I say are you not afraid that the next step should be into the bottomless pit? A fugitive Servant in Plutarch being well nigh overtaken, ran out of the way to hide himself in a Mill, and the Mill was in those days instead of an House of Correction to torment Runnagate Servants. O says the Master, ubi te occuparem nisi in pistrino? This is the very place where I wisht to find you. So shall the Lord speak to those Epicures that make a mystery of their pleasures, you are in the right way for my vengeance to find you out, when you run into the dark and secret corners of voluptuousness, as if you digged into Hell.

The deeper we reach into the Well, Satan knows we must stoop down the more. David complains what a snare it is, when a man is enticed to dive as it were into a large bottom for his vanity, incurvaverunt animam meam, they have pressed down my soul, Psal. lvii. 7. like Corn that's beaten flat to the earth with a violent storm, and when it is laid the Fowls of the air devour it. As the eye of Cain which looked down dejectedly upon the earth was a sign of desperation; is it not worse when the will and desire of the Soul tends downward to this base Element, and to these transitory joys. So it was with Israel, when the Lord had forsaken them, and left them to the dregs of their own carnal mind, Es. li. 23. I will put thee into the hand of them that have said unto thy soul, bow down that we may go over thee. A certain Parable and a Story go together on this wise, Luke xiii. A woman had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And a Fig tree was planted in a good soil, which for three years together bore no fruit. Here's the double condition of our sinful nature, homo nec fructum servat operationis, nec statum rectitudinis, the rectitude of innocence is turned crooked in us; and then it is impossible we should bring forth the fruit of good works. The Soul stands upright when it desires to be with Christ, but it is bowed down with a spirit of infirmity when our treasure is upon earth. You know how Gideon 's choice Soldiers did drink of the Brook, putting water in their hands, and lapping like a Dog; but the rest bowed down to the River to drink upon their knees, ver. 6. Whereupon Gregory took occasion to show symbolically, what different postures our spiritual and our carnal appetite have in partaking those things they love? mundi aqua bibitur facie pronâ in terram, fons aquae viventis facie supinâ; we drink the waters beneath with our face bowed down to the earth, we drink the waters of life with our face and eyes turned up to Heaven. To him that walks in a Valley every Shrub is tall that grows upon the top of a Mountain; so perhaps our pleasures seem aloft to us, and not to lie so low as the bottom of a Well, because we ourselves do walk in the shadow of death, and in the valley of corruption. An ambitious man will scarce believe his soul is bowed down, when he seeks for honor, but rather that aspiring to a grand Title doth lift up his thoughts: O that you did stand upon a Pinacle of faith, and from thence look up to Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith, and you would then acknowledge that all these empty clouds did fly below you. Why do you not expect the grace of God, and pray often unto him, when wilt thou make good thy promise to me, O Lord, which thou hast spoken to me, O Lord, Es. lviii. 14. Thou shalt delight thyself in the Lord, and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth: Sustollam te super altitudines terrae. O that I could be exalted above the earth, then would I not bow down my soul to draw forth vanity from this deep Well, and nothing but the waters of bitterness.

You see what these waters are; there is no permanency in them, they flit away; and yet we draw them from the very depth of Hell, with much toil and carefulness, and it is disputable with St. Austin, which of the two be more commodious to man, labor in hau • iendo affligens, aut sitis crucians, but after the labor of our body to draw them forth follows the greediness of our heart to be filled with them, we drink them down. All things were made for man, the pleasures of art and wit, the abundance of the whole World, the Myrrh and Frankincense of one India, the Gold and Silver of the other: Divinity must not deny you that which is your own. The great God is as liberal to us as He was to his own People, but he gave them the labors of the Heathen in possession, that they might keep his Laws. Carnalis populus si parva non acciperet, magna non credoret, says Gregorianus: As Caleb and Joshua brought a bunch or two of Grapes, to let the people see what a rich Land it was, which the Lord had promised; so a Modicum is allotted to us for our present use, that we may look for a real and more substantial treasure in Heaven. And indeed this is the purpose of my Text, to commend the Grace of God above all things, but not altogether to contemn his Creatures.

The Crime reproved is to swallow them down, like drink that runs in all our veins and is presently incorporated into our blood and spirits: as a learned Author says, that a greedy heart hath animam triticeam, not an heavenly spirit, but a wheaten soul, altogether projecting for outward means, it must have bread, it must have store, the Barn must be thwackt full, the provision must be able to serve many years; such wheaten cogitations make a wheaten soul. By such another Catechresis I may say out of my Text, that a greedy tippling desire makes a drunken soul: an unsatiated mind is as brutish a Monster as Job's Behemoth, He drinketh up a river, he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth. David would not drink of that water which was brought from the Well of Bethel with the jeopardy of his Servants blood, therefore he poured it out to the Lord; but our desires fetch such things unto us which are brought with the hazard of that which is better than life. David hath shown us the way what is to be done, pour them forth unto the Lord; if they be sinful pleasures, by repentance; if they be riches, by alms and charity: By all means pour them forth, lest they consume us like those waters in the Levitical Law, which the Priest gave to the Woman suspected for Adultery; if she were defiled the waters turned bitter, and did rot her thigh, and she became a curse among all the people. It is a prefiguration, I do verily think, of that diseaseful rottenness which doth oftentimes in these days befall Adultery. And as the rottenness goes before, so be sure the curse will come behind it.

I might be copious from this Allegory in my Text, that a wanton appetite is a drunken disease; but I will contract it by showing one dissimilitude, he that pours any liquor into his body it is to cherish himself; but the most men drink greedily of worldly things, to make others swell, and heap up riches, that their children may gather them: So the Son often times vomits up that wealth whereof the Father surseited: for you shall never purchase so much as your Posterity would sell away in the third or fourth Generation. The good Father thought he said enough to discipline an avaricious fool, when he bad him number his days which were very short, and therefore cut shorter his covetous desires, which were very long, Longa nostra desideria increpat vita brevis. Alas, says Nabal, I measure not my necessities by the span of my own life, but according to the breadth and length of all my Posterity, who must enjoy these things after me. I shall answer it with a Paradox, yet it is such a rule as I never saw many exceptions against it. If your children love gains as well as you have done, they will thrive though you leave them but a little: If they regard not Parsimony as you have done, they will break and decay though you bequeath them a great treasure. Lighten yourself therefore of these superfluous burdens which you carry like a Camel for their sakes that will never bear them after you: And if God have given you a large Issue, be you more bountiful in Alms-deeds and Charity, as St. Cyprian reasons, Pro pluribus placandus est eleemosynis; as Job offered Sacrifices to God according to the number of his Sons and Daughters: So must you offer up gifts unto the Lord to bless your Olive branches according to the number of your Posterity. Therefore to end this Point, drink your waters for your own thirst, and not for others, for he that deviseth to leave an huge mass behind him is sure he shall take nothing at all away. Aeneas Sylvius celebrates this Story among the actions of Saladine the Great, he knew his end was at hand, and therefore bad a Soldier carry a winding-sheet upon the top of a Spear through all his Army, and proclaim with a loud voice, Ex tantis opibus nihil aliud Saladinus secum tulit; Saladine carried nothing away with him but that of all his magnificent fortune. O bewitching vanity therefore to devour the Fatherless, and the Widow, to swallow down ill-gotten wealth to drink so greedily of these stolen waters, and out of so many Lordships it is well at last if your Heirs will allow you an handful of herbs and flowers to carry you sweet to your grave.

I have shown what a vanity it is in man to have a greedy desire to be filled with the vanities of this world: If you will be mocked, like Tantalus, you may dap at these waters, and always miss: you may suck like an horse-leech and never be satisfied; this I deduce from the last part of my Text, terra inanis, as I believe Moses means mystically, Gen. i. 2. The earth is void and empty, and all the joys upon earth have such an emptiness that they cannot fill, for whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. Man disquieteth himself in vain, so David begins; and St. Chrysostom descants thus upon the complaint, the Seas are rolled about with a storm, and grow calm again within an hour: the Air is driven violently by the winds, and at last it is hush: the earth sometimes quakes and moves, and by and by it stands fast upon his Pillars: only the heart of man is never at peace, never but hunting for some new-nothing which it had not before. So St. Chrysostom runs over three of the Elements, showing that their disquietness and troubles are composed again; now I had rather instance in the Element of the fire, which he omitted, than in any of the rest; a devouring fire, though it be as great as Nebuchadnezzar's Furnace, goes out by little and little; and every man knows how, not by throwing wood upon the Pile, but by drawing away the combustible stuff, so that it shall have no matter to spend: so the appetite of man hath an hot fume, and a scaulding fire within; will you go about to extinguish it as fools do, by throwing heaps upon it? Or rather by subtraction of all superfluities; and then it will go out of itself.

Will you attend to those reasons which the heathen hammered out, why you shall never take the heart of man without a new and a changeable Wish? One speaks Astronomically that the Planet of the Moon being the lowest doth most predominate over the composition of man, and therefore her continual increasings and decreasings do lead our heart, Luna rursus nascitur, & impletur, sed impleta non permanet, sed rursus minuitur. If this cause hit the nail right we should ebb sometimes as well as flow in our wishes, which is not incident to our continual thirstiness. Rather, says a second, such things as we desire, their substance doth not enter into our heart, but simulacra & umbra earum, their colors, and shadows, and a shadow or a fancy takes no room, the place is as empty for all them as ever it was before. A third makes this ingenuous observation, Nemo nostrûm se esse unum cogitat; Every man reckons of himself to be more than one, rather to be a great Troop than a single Creature: And because he may be a Sire of many Generations, he wearies himself with wishing much, as if he would provide for a multitude that could not be numbered. But take these two Reasons in a Theological way, the greater part of men glut themselves with pleasures that stink in God's nostrils; they creep into the advancements of honor by undeserving means; they grow rich by deceit and oppression, wherefore the Lord sends a disturbance upon their Spirit, that they take as little pleasure in that they have, as in that they have not: They drink the waters of bitterness, therefore they shall thirst the more and be tormented. But where there are moderate and lawful pleasures, well merited honors, just and godly gain, I dare say no such vertiginous vexation shall fall upon them. When God gives riches he gives quietness withal unto the heart; The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he doth add no sorrows with it, Prov. x. 22. Besides, since we refuse the Lord for the chief and principal content, his curse comes down upon all things else that they shall never content us. When Julian did attempt to build up the Temple of Jerusalem again, as many stones as were laid in the day were thrown down by God's vengeance in the night. In the day time every man is building a Babel in his own heart, and laying stone upon stone; after he hath slept, and is awake again, his heart begins to meditate upon new crotchets and devices, he vilifies all that he did intend before, unless he can frame it better, and thus every day brings new sorrows and imaginations to the Appetite.

The Prophet Hosea doth insinuate this similitude, that the heart doth itch after this delight, and the other, but never resolve itself where it will stay: As some Youngsters love to court and woo their Mistress many years, but never to consummate a Marriage. So the Prophet, Chap. ii. 7. She shall follow after her Lovers, but she shall not overtake them. Alas, how can we overtake what we would have, when we set ourselves no bounds, but run after everything that is before us? It is like the Fable of the Hare and the Hedghog; the Hedghog challenged the Hare to run: And because the Hare was far the swifter, a thousand Hedghogs laid themselves in several distances in the way, and when the Hare had out-run an hundred, there were nine hundred still before it. So if our covetous affections do prick us on to over-take every Hedghog that runs before, we shall put ourselves to an endless labor, and weary our souls with vanity. Set yourself this short Stage which I shall tell you, and it is quickly run. Whatsoever the Lord gives me in this life my heart shall be contented if he will give me himself. I shall be satisfied with his goodness as out of a River; and he that drinketh of those waters which Christ shall give him, He shall never thirst. AMEN.

THE SECOND SERMON UPON

JOHN iv. 14.

But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.

I N my former Text Christ told the Woman of Samaria no more than she and everybody knew, whosoever drinketh of this Elementary water shall thirst again; but here's a Lesson which neither she, nor any Unbeliever can know, till they have tasted the good gift of God; Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst. Go now, and ask our Savior, Art thou greater than our Father Jacob, that gave us this Well? The Well was Jacob's perhaps, but not the water; he digged the Cystern, but God gave the Spring that flowed into it: this might have been alleged. But what profit had come to the winning of a Soul, if Christ had made comparisons between himself and his Servant? It was his purpose at this time, not to wrestle with Jacob, but with the Woman of Samaria: he came not to diminish the honor of his Saints, but to magnify the power of the Holy Ghost. Petit potum ut det potum. He met with one that was backward in courtesy, and would not draw a Pitcher of water to cool his thirst; yet he is forward in mercy, and proffers living water to quench the flame of her sins: He drops by little and little upon her stony heart, until he opened that hard rock, that waters of salvation might flow out. And first his Doctrine bred admiration in this Woman, then a desire to learn, then a sudden spark of faith, which confessed that Jesus was the Messias; then confusion for her sins, then repentance, and surely then godly sorrow, and then tears: and so she drew those waters before she was aware, after which our Savior thirsts above all others, the tears of unfeigned repentance. She denied him to take the pains to draw a draught out of Jacob's Well, but he enforced her to draw out more precious liquors than those were, from the bottom of her heart.

These are the words, now read unto you, which wrought that great effect, and did pierce into her soul. And let me say of that weak Instrument, by whose tongue the Lord at this time doth make an offer unto you of that immortal Fountain, as sometimes Gregory did, when he exhorted many great persons to the contempt of the World, and invited them to eat and drink with Christ in his Kingdom, Etsi ego ad invitandum indignus appareo, sed tamen magnae sunt deliciae quas promitto; I am most unworthy to bid you come unto these waters, and drink; but the delicious Fountain which I promise to them that thirst after righteousness, is worthy to invite you. To handle it succinctly, and to your edification, there are four Branches of the Text to be propounded. 1. The Subject to which all is to be referred, is a water of a most different condition from that which is mentioned in the former verse. 2. Who is able to draw it? none but Christ, it is a water that he gives, and none beside him. 3. How it is to be taken, even as a sovereign and a delightful Receipt for the health of the Soul, and the very soul of health, it must be drunk. 4. The exceeding benefit and virtue, which amounts to that value, that the whole World hath not riches enough to purchase it, if it were to be bought; for whosoever drinketh of it he shall never thirst.

To begin with these, and the Touchstone upon which all other parts of the Text shall be tried is this. What this mystical water is, which our Savior prefers so much before Jacob's Well? Christ calls it living water, at the tenth verse of this Chapter; that's a sweet Epithet indeed; and yet it hath a more amiable description in the words that follow my Text, a Well of water springing up unto everlasting life. These are names of much elegancy, and much obscurity, but that we find a clear explanation of them in the seventh Chapter of this Gospel, ver. 38. He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. But this he spake of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive. So the Scripture hath written upon this water what it is, that you may know it from any other, it is the gift of Grace that cometh from above, that sanctifieth our hearts, and cleanseth us from all our sins, it is the working of the Spirit which knits us unto Jesus Christ, and makes us Heirs of Salvation. God the Holy Ghost doth abase himself to be resembled to many of these inferior things for our understanding. No man can miss to remember how the Spirit did appear in cloven tongues as it were of fire, Acts ii. 2. In another place, Jo. 3.8. he is likened to the air, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou knowest not whence it comes, nor whither it goes; so is everyone that is born of the spirit. And here his name passeth down a descension beneath that, and is termed water: only the earth is too base an Element, whereunto the Holy Spirit should be compared; leave that to man, and to his corruptible constitution. The Fire, the Air, and Water have some infinitude in them after a sort, quod suis terminis non continentur, says the Philosopher, they are diffusive bodies, which are not properly bounded, or circumscribed in any Figure, as the Earth is, therefore all their names are borrowed to signify some disposition of the Divine Spirit toward us, whose Virtue is most diffusive, and whose Majesty incomprehensible.

But in each of the Testaments Old and New, the first time that we read of the Holy Ghost, he was joined unto the Waters, in the first day of the Creation the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters, Gen. i. 2. and upon the first manifestation of Christ, that he shown himself abroad to be the Messias of the World, the Spirit sat upon his head when he was baptized at Jordan in the shape of a Dove. And it is not vain to consider, that when the Holy Ghost came down in fire at the Feast of Whitsuntide, yet St. Peter applies the place of the Prophet Joel to that occasion, which speaks as if it had been water, effundam spiritum, In the last days I will pour out of my spirit to all flesh. By that which is said already I have brought it to this, the Scripture doth very much aim at this Comparison to be considered, why the virtues and operations of the Holy Ghost are called Water; and the choice of the Comparison, I think, are these particulars.

First, as waters poured upon Hills will not stay upon their tops, but runs down to the lowest places, and fills the Valleys beneath, so the Graces of God descend to the lowly, and humble in heart, and abide not with the proud. Nay David says it will be the better for it if it be but a little Valley, a diminitive: thou makest fruitful the little Valleys thereof with the drops of rain. Centurio quanto humilior tanto capacior, says Bernard; the Centurion lay very flat and low at our Savior 's feet, and where was there a man that had a larger portion of the heavenly benediction? for Christ said of him, I have not found so great faith no not in Israel. Nor is this a 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the Heathen called it, an embasement of a good courage, for the humble man hath the loftiest mind of all others if it be well observed; for he reckons not by the magnificent pomp and praise of the World, though he have no little part in it, but esteems God, and nothing else to be his glory, and because he doth give God the glory in all things that are excellent, therefore he doth invite the Spirit of Grace unto himself by a religious policy; as thus, Grace is no longer Grace, than you confess it is conferred by mere gift, and frank benevolence. The proud is so arrogant in all his thoughts, that he would not yield to that; he thinks it was his due, which could not justly, or at least congruously be denied him. Needs must the rain fall down from such a steepy Mountain; and where will it find a place to rest? but in a little Valley, in a lowly heart which magnifies the love and favor of Christ for the gift of the Spirit above all things; but we had no right to ask it, because we were sinful; we had no understanding to desire it, because we were foolish; it is omni modo gratuita, a good turn freely bestowed in all respects; why do you not see, says Bernard, gratia nullibi nomen suum tuetur, nisi in humili? the Grace of God should quite lose its nature unless it dropt upon the humble man; sink down therefore like a valley to receive this water, for the Lord resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble, 1 Pet. v. 5.

Secondly, The Spirit holds this Analogy with water, it washeth away all filth from the soul, and maketh the heart clean which was defiled. No superstition hath lasted longer, or spread further than one I shall name unto you: that an external sousing of the body in water did quite take away the guilt of all those sins which had been committed by the body. So Euripides as wise an Heathen as any in the pack, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Dive but into the Sea and it would rense away all their iniquities: then the Jews encurred this error by that corruption which the Romans brought among them, especially the Pharisees; who if they had walked in the streets, or been in the Market, presently washed as soon as they came home, lest they had touched, or been touched by somewhat unawares which was defiled by the Gentiles. And if they washed all was well. No marvel therefore if the savage Moriscoes have a strong fancy to this day, how their filthiness is purged away if they bath in some river water every morning: It is more strange, that the Russian Christians in these times should attribute secret power to such an idle Ceremony: but most foppish of all, that the Priests of Rome would lead their whole Church into this delusion, that venial sins are done away if a few drops of an hallowed casting bottel light upon the gaping people: and many a shrewd knavery passeth under the name of a venial sin, as it is to be seen in their Cases of Conscience. Against all their errors, which I have recited, I lay my conclusion again, nothing but the grace of God, that water indeed which is above the heavens doth wash away all filth from the soul, and make the heart clean which was defiled.

The which will appear the better by noting this preeminence in their difference. Elementary water well applied takes away all impure soil that cleaves to a vessel: But can it add a brightness to the Vessel better than it had in the first making? No, you will say, that is not to be expected. I, but such is the operation of inward grace when it maketh clean; an earthen vessel is still no better than earth when it is rensed in a River: but if the Spirit from above abide within us, if it wash and sanctify this Vessel of clay, it overlays it with Gold, and makes it more precious by far than ever. Then but a word spoken with grace, and in due season, is like apples of gold with pictures of silver, says Solomon. O how much have we need of it? We are all black before God like the Children of an Ethiopian, says the Prophet Amos. We have Vultus adustos, faces as if they were scorched with flames, Jer. xiii. 8. And of others whom God did begin to loath, their visage is blacker than a coal, Lam. iv. 8. Black will take no color we use to say, there is no help for it, either by Art or Nature: but if the supernatural hand be stretched out upon us, then the Blackmore shall change his skin, and the Leopard his spots. As the blood of the Mother after the birth of her Child keeps not the color of blood, but becomes milk in her breasts, so after we are begotten again by the Spirit, and bring forth the fruits thereof, our bloody sins shall become milk, and though they be read as Scarlet, they shall be white as snow, Isa. i. 18. Yea, the Prophet says of Jerusalem while it served the Lord, her Nazarites were whiter than snow, purer than milk, Lam. iv. 7. Doth not David promise as much unto himself, if the Lord would renew a right spirit within him? Lavabis me, & dealbabor super nivem; Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than the snow. As if by the Sacred Unction from heaven his soul should have a new beauty, which it never had before; a plain Transfiguration, such as our Savior's was in the Mount, so that no Fuller upon earth could make a thing so white. Solomon in all his Royalty was not clothed like a Lily of the field: But take Solomon in his repentance, (whereof I persuade myself) and his soul was much whiter than any Lily in the field. This is a superlative virtue, wherewith the water in my Text is endowed, to cleanse that which was foul from every spot, and to make it surpass the whiteness which it had by nature.

Thirdly, Happy is the tree that grows by the Rivers of waters. No Plant can prosper unless sap and moisture nourish it: So Grace is that coelestial water which supplies the root within us, it makes the conscience abundant in good works, and without it it is impossible to bring forth the fruits of righteousness. Mark the rain which falls from heaven, and the same shower which dropt out of one cloud increaseth sundry Plants in the same Garden according to the nature of the Plant. In one stalk it makes a Rose, in another a Violet, divers in a third, but sweet in all: So the Spirit is a moistening dew which works rare effects in several dispositions, and all most acceptable to God. Is your Complexion Cholerick? Try thine own heart if it be apt to be zealous in a good cause. If it be so, it is the fruit of the Spirit that works upon your constitution. Is Melancholy predominant? The grace of God turns that sad humor into devotion, and Prayer. Is your Temperature Sanguine and cheerful? I can tell what that will do, if this living water feed it: the mind will be bountiful, easy to remit injuries, glad of reconciliation, comfortable to the distressed, always rejoicing in the Lord. If a man be Phlegmatick and fearful, there is a trial likewise what God can bring forth from such a nature. How wary will the Conscience be to give no offense? How pitiful? How penitent? How ready to weep over its own transgressions? Finally, in every Age of the life, old or young, in every condition of fortune, regal, honorable, or servile, this living water, where God pleaseth, incorporates itself into it, and makes it grow and fructify, according to that use and purpose for which it was planted.

It is water then which doth increase and vegetate every Plant which our heavenly Father hath planted, but with much disparity from our common waters, as you may apprehend by divers instances. For first, pour all that you can draw from your fountain upon a tree that is quite dead, and your labor is lost, it will never spring again: but most wretched were the state of man if the water which Christ gives did not bring us to live again when we were quite dead in corruption. And you being dead in your sins hath he quickened, &c. having forgiven you all your trespasses, Col ii. 13. All the Sons of Adam beside our earthly mortality are under the infliction of a double death by nature, it is a spiritual death to be bereft of grace: It is an eternal death to be guilty of hell fire. We are St. Jude's fruitless trees, bis mortuae, once were enough, but we are twice dead, plucked up from the root, yet if the light of God's countenance shine upon us, we shall sprout again, and wax green like a Cedar in Libanus. What a sapless tree was Zachaeus before the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, as we do well call him in the Nicene Creed, did bring salvation to his house? You might as soon have squeezed water from a Pummy stone as charity from a Publican before his conversion; yet though he were dead in covetousness, as soon as He began to live in him, he scattered abroad, and gave unto the poor. As the Father said of his Prodigal Child being now come home into his bosom, This thy brother was dead, and is alive again: So let every penitent soul confess, my root was dried up, how should it come to spring again but by some influence from heaven? I was a withered tree that cumbered the ground, how am I exalted like Aaron's Rod to bring forth Buds and Almonds? I was a senseless stone, and God hath raised me from thence to be a Child of Abraham.

Take another instance of diversity, in every Plant that lives water is the means to make it bear; but in every Plant it makes it bear such fruit, and no other, as was first grafted upon it; it causeth a Fig-tree to bring forth Figs, and a Vine to be laden with Grapes: But if the fruit were sour and unpleasant by nature, water it while your arms ache it will never help it. But this water in my Text, which is so worthy of our Savior's praise, it will make you gather Grapes of Thorns, and Figs of Thistles. Indeed, it should do so, but our Preaching is no better with many than River water gushing upon a Crab tree, the more we teach, the more you are laden with your own natural fruit. Pride, Luxury, Intemperance, Faction, Malice, and Incontinency are as rife as ever they were; nothing grows upon the stock for all the labor that is spent, but sour Wildings that set the teeth on edge; it seems the chief ingredient is wanting, the blessing from above: you mind other things, and then the chief pipe of all will be stopped, by which the Spirit should enter into our soul. There are some, and I would they were but few, that put in Bill and Answer, as it were against God's plea, they urge their personal infirmities, and natural inclinations, and think that God can ask no more. I am dull of understanding, says one, and what I am taught I cannot bear it away: I am suddenly transported with indignation, and I cannot suffer; I am retentive of a wrong, and cannot easily be reconciled. All these are in the same tune with those ill mannered Guests in the Gospel, we cannot come, I pray you have us excused. Humilitas sonat in ore, superbia in action; To plead excuse is a form of humility, but in effect it is an open arrogancy. Spend this breath of excuse in Prayer and Supplication, and cry out often, and affectionately, drop down upon this heart O Lord, drop down upon it, and it shall bring forth fruit quite against the grain of your custom, quite against the bias of nature. The high-minded shall be humble as a Lamb: The implacable shall forgive his brother seventy times seven times: The Impostor shall make restitution: the Bravaries of the time shall confess, and amend their vanity. Loe this is an alteration which nothing can produce but living water, from natural sterility of good to supernatural fruitfulness. Origen confounds Celsus with this Argument, that the Christian Religion must needs be the power of God, and not of man. For in all Kingdoms where it had success, it did civilize the most barbarous Nations: It did mollify and intenerate the most stony hearts: It brought in Justice and good Laws among them that lived by Rapine and Robbery. A strange fruit to be found upon such wild Plants. Could it otherwise come to pass than because they were watered from above? I think you will like this Doctrine best in the Prophet Isaiah's expression, Chap. xi. 6. under the Kingdom of Christ, so it goes before, The Wolf shall dwell with the Lamb, and the Leopard shall lie down with the Kid. The Calf, and the young L • on, and the Fatling shall feed together, and a young Child shall lead them. All that place is noted by Eusebius for a Prophesy, to be meant of the conversion of the Gentiles, whose brutishness and savage life was changed into good nurture, and sweet conversation. Ye were darkness▪ but now ye are light in the Lord. O blessed are ye, when that which is natural and inbred to our disposition drops off, and grows no more: Then if ye be planted by the River of God, ye shall bring forth your fruit in due season; and look whatsoever you do it shall prosper.

Take a third instance of diversity. Our Elementary water helps a Plant to bring forth one kind fruit at one season of the year, and this is a blessing of God's left hand to fill us with the plenty of the earth: but the water, which is the blessing of his right hand, hath this excellency, to make the same tree bear all manner of spiritual fruit, and at all times and seasons, never unfurnisht, never empty. A moral temperate man may be unjust: A moral just man may be carnal: A moral chaste man may be covetous: But if it be spiritual temperance, or spiritual chastity coming from the grace of God, it will be justice, and peace, and mercy, and all the whole swarm of virtues that can be recited. There is a difficult point in one of the Parables about a man that had not on a Wedding Garment. What is this Wedding Garment? One, will have it to be Faith; another, to be Good Works; a third, to be spiritual Joy; a fourth, to be repentance. Why Origen prevented all these controversies before they were moved, if he had been marked: Says he, Vestis nuptialis est textura omnium virtutum; The Wedding Garment is all these, and more than these, for it signifies that all virtue in the several threads should be woven into our heart. Faith, Hope, and Charity are fruits that hang all upon a stalk, three several divine graces, yet they have but one soul. Faith says there is a Kingdom prepared for the righteous, Hope catcheth hold, and says, it is prepared for me: Then Charity comes in for her part, and says, I will run to obtain it. They are like the three principal vital parts in man's body, the Heart, the Brain, and Liver. One is as necessary as all three together, for the decay of either is death without redemption. No straggling, single, solitary virtue which hath no fellows comes from this coelestial watering. The spiritual service of God, says a learned Author, may be measured three ways: 1. Whether it come ex toto cord, from all the heart, from all the strength, and from all the soul. 2. Whether it be Cum totâ plenitudine, with all the confluence of good works as it were in one fortunate conjunction. 3. Whether it be in toto tempore, continually, and at all times alike. Spiritus vivificat, Joh. vi. It is the Spirit that quickeneth, which makes a good man live, and fructify at one time as much as another. It is no dead moisture which can do no good upon a Plant, unless the Sun likewise be in a fit ascension to cherish it, and make it spring. This is living water, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says St. Chrysostom; It impels the Conscience to be never out of motion in some spiritual exercise. The Son of God is called a living stone, and the Spirit living water, and man a living Sacrifice. Righteousness is the savor of life unto life; dead works are the savor of death unto death. A tree that always bears is a Plant of Paradise. Not a little Repentance, or a little Charity, once or twice a year at a Communion, and then shake hands with Mortification till the next Christmas, or Easter. Among other reasons why the Holy Ghost assumed the shape of a Dove this is reckoned for one, that it is a bird of a most teeming fecundity; whether any bird that flies lay oftener I am not certain, I believe not many; such fecundity there is in a lively Faith, it is never without some good Work, either the Tongue is Praying, or the Ear is Hearing, or the Heart is Meditating, or the Eye is Weeping, or the Hand is Giving, or the Soul is Thirsting for Remission of sins. And this is enough to show what fruitfulness is brought to pass by this heavenly moisture, and for the first part of the Text.

Yet it were an undervaluing, and a diminution to so great a blessing, to be called water, unless the second part of my text did hold up the dignity; let us come therefore to consider the rare virtue which is in it; for it takes away the molestation of thirst forever: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. Yet I will take in no more than the Text doth directly prove, and leave that which some would draw in ex abundanti, by the strength of their conjectures. There are those that make this verse a convincing argument, how a man that hath tasted the grace of God is never empty more, but assuredly full and satisfied to the end of his life. Which way soever the truth of that Controversy stands I wave it off, but I think this Text is not to be charged with that meaning, as if it proved it. 'It is true, he that drinks of this water shall never thirst; but quousque bibendum? how long must he drink? let him drink all his days, while his breath lasts, and then he shall be satisfied with the goodness of the Lord as out of a River. Again, call to remembrance what is meant by this water; every good and perfect gift which enricheth the Soul descending from the Father of lights: but among all that heavenly Offspring perseverance is the fairest; Nymphas supereminet omnes, Perseverance must not be excluded from the Text. Then I have done with this rubb in a word, he that drinks of this water, and puts perseverance into the Cup, he shall never thirst.

He shall never thirst? Why then says the Son of Sirach concerning the wisdom which sanctifieth all things, They that eat me shall yet be hungry, and they that drink me shall yet be thirsty, Ecclus. xxiv. 21. and very certain none so greedy to have more grace, as he that hath some already; none so instant to get ten Talents, as he that hath received five. Let Elisha be inspired with a competent measure for one of the Children of the Prophets, and he will presume to ask that a double portion of Elias his spirit may rest upon him, if it be possible. Concerning all the fruits of the Spirit, this judgment of Gregory 's is undoubted, cum non habentur in falstidio sunt, cum habentur in desiderio; they that have them not think vilely of them, they that have them do insatiably desire them. Please you for the true explanation of the words to mark, the Proposition must not be taken alone by itself, but respectively to the Comparison that went before. The water which the Woman of Samaria came for, it consumes, after you have tasted it, and it is missed as if it never had been. Therefore we call for Elementary drink every day, for as much as drought is a torment to nature: now when we are once made partakers of living waters we call for more and more, not because want and dryness doth afflict us, but because desire doth please us. So that distinction used by many will be clear to be understood, sitis ariditati, non desiderio opponitur, he that drinks these waters of the Holy Spirit shall never after have a dry and a parched Soul, but he shall ever have a thirsty affection to drink his fill. The virtue therefore of the Spirit may be well drawn to these three heads. First it moistens the Soul that it feels no dryness, like a barren Land which hath no natural humor in it, there is no such thirst in him that hath a lively faith; but it cannot choose but beget a thirsty affection, and a longing to add more and more unto it. 2. It makes us leave to thirst after vain delights by little and little. 3. He that satiates his spirit with it in this life, shall be discharged from all manner of thirst hereafter, when he changeth this life to live with God forever.

The first of these Propositions begets this lesson, where sanctification hath moistened the inward man to the bottom, and to the root, there the heart is restless till it obtain a larger abundance of the spirit. After this manner a good Proficient gains upon God's blessing step by step. Thou hast given me to know thee, O Lord, but confirm my faith also to believe in thee; nay, give me not only to believe, but to suffer for thy Names sake, so shalt thou try and examine if there be any way of wickedness in me: or if thou hast not reserved me for the Cup of afflictions, yet prove me thoroughly by obedience, grant that my works may please thee: that I may do thy will on earth as it is in heaven. Make thy Laws sweet unto my mouth, sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb. Such a one is Marcianus the Anchorite chronicled by Theodoret: One of his ancient acquaintance being in chase after his Game, found him alone in a Desert. What make you so far from your friends, says the Huntsman; and what make you so far in the Woods, says Marcianus, I am hunting for a Beast, says he, and I will not leave till I have taken it: and I am hunting for my God, says Marcianus, and I will not leave till I have found him. Such a one by Procopius his description was Justinian the Emperor, (and such an Example was worth a thousand) nulla honorandi Dei satietas cum cepit, he was never cloyed to do God honor, he never thought his duty was enough in Religious service. The more we bend our affection to heavenly things, we shall be enflamed with more devotion: as devotion increaseth the more help shall be added, the more help the more diligence, and the more diligence the more glory.

Nemo primo statim die ad satietatem potatur, says one of the Moderns; No man is made Christian enough in a day to go to the Kingdom of Heaven: unless it be in such a rare example as that was of the penitent Thief. It is a false spirit that says unto any mortal man, it is well if you can keep at this stay, and prove no worse. Yet I know the greatest part of indifferent Christians are so affected to the love of the World, that if it were possible to measure out to a dram, what quantity of righteousness would serve them to attain to salvation, they would reach so far, if the Grace of God would assist them, but they would seek no further. I say, if they knew the trick how to make just a Saint, and no more, they would spare a labor for seeking beyond that point, and for the rest sacrifice to carnal security. Certainly there can be no living water already, where there is no thirsting for more. Whatsoever you know or hear of, that any Saint living or departed hath done for God's sake, it is a shame for you, if you do not covet to do as much or more than that; at least if you be not sorry that your frailties make you come short of the best. Speak thus to your own heart, Should any of thy Servants love thee better than I? should any of thy Disciples be more obedient than I? for none of thine Elect is so much indebted to thy Passion as I am, because none had so many sins to be forgiven? Thus your Soul must thirst to be the nearest that shall stand before the presence of the Lord; and count yourself extreme lag in perfection until you desire to come equal with the principal Saints. Lord let me love thee as Peter did, Lord let me love thee more than these. Some cried Hosanna, and shouted for joy, when our Savior went to Jerusalem; some cut down branches of Palms, that was a more real expression of his welcome; some spared their Garments from their back and laid them in his way: These were the foremost in affection; and what a becoming thing it was to be the best of all those that ran forth to meet our Savior? but as if one should wish always to be a Child, and never come to manly growth, so is a lumpish Christian, who persuades himself that a moderate competency of righteousness is best: let others, if they will, strive to be those green Olive trees that flourish in the House of the Lord. The learned among the Heathen love to talk of strange Creatures, and Plutarch tells of a Fish, of which to eat a little is hurtful, to eat it up all is medicinal. True or false be the Story, it comes fit to be applied. Christ promiseth no blessing to him that doth but wet his lips with this living water: a little spattering holiness will turn to hypocrisy; the virtue of it abides with those that drink deep for the preserving and cherishing of a spiritual life: and the thirsty Soul, the more it drinks up, the more it will cry out, give me ever of this water to drink.

The second Experiment is this; the water which Christ gives turns the edge of the appetite quite from this world, and makes us leave to thirst after all other delights: he that drinketh of this water, though concupiscence cannot quite be rooted out, yet he shall never long greedily after carnal lusts. He that doth not hate his own Soul cannot be my Disciple: is not this a Paradox? for, what shall it profit me to love all things else, if I hate it? well, love it as it is Christ's Soul, altogether ravished with the love of him: hate it as it was thine own Soul altogether ravished with the love of the world. Tunc animam nostram been odimus, cum ejus carnalibus desideriis non acquiescimus, says Gregory; as a man seems to be ill affected to another, if he deny him that he sues for: so such heavenly resolutions by a Catachresis are called the hate of the Soul, when we deny it satisfaction in foolish and earthly inclinations. He that hath called promotion to honor, or the fatness of riches, or luxury, or any such thing, the darling of his heart, it was for want of this water in my Text, to cool the inflammation of his fever: but if ever he receive a dose of it, the new Wine is put in a new Bottle, and both shall be preserved. The grace of God doth supply the place of a Cherubin that stood with a flaming sword to keep Adam out of Paradise; so the Holy Spirit will give the watch-word and cry out in the time of temptation, turn aside, and enter not into the paths of these pleasures, these are not the Paradise into which you should come; if you do, there is a Sword that will cut you in twain, and give you your portion with Hypocrites. St. Austin observs upon the sixth verse of this Chapter, that Jesus being weary sat upon the Well, quasi non alius fons esset quàm ipse Christus; as who should say, O ye Samaritans, what Well do ye come forth to draw at; that Pit from which ye drew of old is vanished, but here's a better sitting in the place, a Savior which is Christ the Lord.

How ugly those things will appear to a regenerate man, which in the days of unhappiness, when sin did reign in his mortal body, were the pride of his eyes? how contemptibly he looks upon himself, remembering how he was ambitious? how high he thinks himself above the reach of fortune, when he thinks not of high places? The World would teach him wisdom, how he may save his own: the Gospel will teach him better wisdom, to lose all for Christ: before he could not see another glister, and shine like a bigger Planet, but he felt a gripe of emulation, and his heart said, oh that I were him or him: but when he can truly say. Unto thee O Lord do I lift up my soul, my conversation is in heaven, then he can see no man abroad with whom he would change conditions: and why all this? O but because the new Wine hath filled the Bottle, the Ram is offered up for a Burnt-offering, and Abraham hath his Isaac untouched. Isaac is spiritual joy, which Abraham cannot lose, if the Ram, which is carnal concupiscence, be consumed instead of it, and burnt to ashes. Then Matthew leaves all his wealth, with more delight than ever he got it; then Paul esteems all the dignity he had in the Synagogue to be but dross for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. And you cannot hear too often what the holy Father St. Austin says of his own conversion, that his fancy was in a good dream, as if it heard a voice saying, take up the Book and read; and he pitched upon these words, Rom. xiii. 13. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in chambering and wantonness, not in rioting in drunkenness. At that instant he felt a refrigeration within himself to cool the fire of lust, which is kindled from Hell: at that instant he laid his mouth to the Well of water, nectareum bibit ore fontem, and found it tempered with that ingredient of the Holy Ghost, that he did never thirst. It is a parabolical, but a pious application which St. Austin makes upon the 28. of this Chapter. The Woman of Samaria came forth with her Pitcher to draw water; by which are moralized the unstable vanities, that are as common as an open River. Well, upon some conference our Savior reveals unto her, that he was the Christ. What's next after that in the story? the Woman left her water pot, and went away into the City. Now comes in Justins Parable, the Water pot is this Appetite of ours made of clay and dirt; with it we pluck up pernicious things from the hidden and dark pits of pleasure; but she that knows Christ must abhor this Appetite, and cast away her Pitcher: quae credit in Christo renunciabit seculo: leave your filthy desires behind you, take them up no more, and then Christ will take you up into his glory.

The third Experiment, and the principal which extols this sovereign water, comes now to be handled, and it will serve fitly to conclude all: 'tis thus; he that drinks of it liberally, and thirstily unto the end of his life, shall not only asswage the malignity of evil concupiscence now, but shall be discharged of all manner of thirst hereafter, when he changeth this life to live with God forever. Burdens heat the spirits, and waste the moisture of the body, and parch the throat with dryness more than anything: Help a man that is so overladen, with a comfortable draught of wine, and you fortify and enable his strength to make him bear his carriage easily, that he shall not sink under it; but yet the burden remains upon his shoulders. So in this time of our Pilgrimage sin will ever be a sore burden upon us, and unless the spirit did comfort us it could not be supported; but we have a draught of wine mingled with mirrh given us now, to undergo the cross with fortitude and patience. And in the day of God's last visitation, when He shall take thy soul into his rest, thy burden shall be quite cast off, and the tediousness shall be no more remembered.

Among the manifold mercies of God, for which we are to bless his holy Name, the pleasantest of them all is this Psal. ciii. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things, so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles. Surely there is much in joining those two things together in that verse, thy mouth shall be satisfied with good things, when thy youth is renewed like the Eagles; which is a Paraphrase of the resurrection of the life to come. He that opens the door of his heart when Christ knocks to come in, he shall sup with Christ, Revel. iii. 20. And Gregory notes, that the grace which he will minister to us in the Kingdom of Glory is called a Supper, quia post prandium coena restat, post coenam nullum convivium: for after Dinner the stomach may look for another Meal, but having supt, it looks for no more repast that day, but is satisfied. So in this life we dine with God's grace, and look for another Banquet; in the next life we sup with God's grace, that's the hidden manna which is food forever; qui credit in me non sitiet in aeternum, he that believeth in me shall not thirst forever.

Then to drink of this water is to believe, the reason is because faith swallows the hidden mysteries of salvation, without chewing or biting upon them with the unsanctified tooth of human reason; fides sine difficultate intrat in animam, it goes down like drink into our bowels with great facility: Believe therefore that this water will suffer no thirst to possess your soul when you shall enjoy the presence of God, and be it unto you according to your faith. We ought not to trust so much to that which we see, or feel, as to be confident of the fulfilling of God's Promises. Lazarus shall no more thirst at the Rich man's Gate, but the rich unmerciful man shall thirst for a drop of water to cool his tongue. Therefore let him that is in misery say, I take my turn to want for a little while, I shall be full hereafter, the hungry shall be fed with good things, and the rich shall be sent empty away. Fret not therefore at the prosperity of an unjust man: Would you take his gains, his honors, his pleasures told ten times over with his losses and afflictions to boot, which he shall sustain hereafter? I am sure you like not the bargain. The Silkworm begins to live in silk at this time, and continues but for two or three months: the Ground-worm will not change conditions with the Silk-worm, who may live longer in the dust of the earth. Why, he that is sanctified in Christ shall bequeath his body for a time to the dust, but his spirit shall return to unspeakable glory. Therefore envy not these Silk-worms, which shall flourish for a short time, perhaps for less than a month, perhaps for less than an hour, and then they shall howl, and thirst forever. Say thou with Philip, Ostende nobis patrem & sufficit, let these things pass away, show us thy Father, and it sufficeth.

And as faith is sure of Promise, so it is hot in Prayer: tanto instantior in prece quanto certior in promissione: because God is sure to give, I will be sure to ask. If thou wouldest ask of me, says our Savior to the Woman, I would give thee living water. The Holy Ghost is donum ex dono, given to us not at the first hand, but because Christ is given, the gift of another gift, because God gave his only Son unto the World. As it is the natural condition of water to ascend as much as it descends; so Christ descended with this grace of living water unto the earth, therefore it will ascend again from the earth, with us, where Christ is gone into Heaven. Behold I have set before you in the former verse, and my Text, vile waters and precious; a terrestrial Globe upon which you might study the vanity of things beneath, and a celestial Globe to study heaven, and the things that are above. The former verse begins like Solomon 's Ecclesiastes, Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity: This I end as the same Book doth, The end of all is fear God, and keep his Commandments. Will you mind earthly things, or is your conversation in Heaven? Philip. iii. 19. Lo the Fountain of righteousness is open, all that thirst by faith come and drink, especially in the Supper of the Lord with humbleness: and because we have not a Pitcher to draw, and none can help us but Jesus Christ, let us turn unto him in Prayer, that he would open our mouth wide, and fill it with his hidden grace, that we may never thirst after the delightfulness of our former sins. AMEN.

THE FIRST SERMON UPON

JOHN vi. 11.

And Jesus took the Loaves, and when he had given thanks, he distributed to the Disciples, and the Disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would.

Y OU can turn almost to no part of the whole Gospel but you shall light upon a Miracle. They are well called the bright Constellations, which shine in the Orbs of the New Testament. Yet all Stars are not of the same Magnitude, have not the same influence; so the Miracles of our Savior have not all the same remarkable luster, work not all alike upon the understanding and the conscience. My Text is the main share of one that hath no little excellency in it. Perhaps I may prefer it before the most, or equal it with the best. But I revere the Word of God, I dare make no such comparisons. This I may affirm, preserving modesty, and observing safety, that it is of great conteinment. It made the Divinity of Christ most conspicuous, his power above Moses and the Prophets notorious, and his tender compassion most gracious. The Disciples were much edified by it, the People greatly satisfied, and, which is the aim of all, God was highly glorified. It is not usual with our Savior to upbraid his Apostles with his mighty works: yet he did with this. Do ye not understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand, and how many baskets ye took up? Mat. xvi. 9. It is not usual for all the Four Evangelists to enter the same Story into their sacred Writings: yet their Pens have all concurred to recite this miracle. Commonly that which is recorded by one or two is omitted by the rest. Or if three have endited the same thing, the fourth leaves it out, (saving about the Passion, and the Resurrection, which are the Pole-stars of our faith) and this wonderful multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes the Spirit of God hath inspired them all to make it most famous, being so unanimously represented in all the Gospels. Thirdly, It is not usual to have the wonderful works of Christ anticipated in heathen Prophesies: But the Sibyls have prenuntiated in express terms all the circumstances of this miracle, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 &c. that the Son of God with five Loaves and two Fishes should feed five thousand in the Wilderness, and twelve baskets should remain of the Fragments. You will say perhaps this is a little too explicit in all points for a Prophesy: It hath been doubted of, I confess, in all Ages. And he was a learned man that thus censured these Sibylline Oracles, Quo apertiora sunt eo mihi suspectiora; The more clear they be, the more to be suspected. Yet Lactantius had no such jealousy of them, but admires them that they so exactly foretold all the occurrencies of my Text. Yet in case those Verses were not the Sibyls, but an interlineation of some Christian Poets, it argues strongly that the Interliner thought this Miracle to be a glorious note of the Kingdom of our Savior. Finally, It is not usual with the Jews to bear a Testimony to our Lord that his works did show him to be the promised Messias. Some things that he did, made them say that he was Elias, or John the Baptist, or to defend him that he was a good man. Other actions forced them to a demur, When Christ cometh will he do more miracles? But their judgments were quite captivated with this deed, for they determine upon it in the fourteenth verse of this Chapter, This is of a truth that Prophet which should come into the world. This Scripture therefore made so notable by the finger of Christ, by the Pen of all the Evangelists, by the Oracles of the Gentiles, by the Confession of the Jews, this is it which I propound unto you, and out of these particulars I shall draw forth my doctrine upon it. Here are two things chiefly to be attended, a preparation to a Miracle, and the Miracle itself. The preparation is Bodily and Ghostly: Bodily, in accepit, Jesus took the Loaves, and likewise the Fishes. Ghostly, in gratias egit, or benedixit, he gave thanks. The Miracle consists, 1. In the distribution, that was Christ's Act, He distributed to the Disciples. 2. In the subdistribution, that was the Disciples Office, The Disciples distributed to them that were set down. 3. In the reception, that was the Peoples part, They did eat and were all filled, they had as much as they would.

A better preparation to a Miracle cannot be imagined than this accepit. If Jesus take the work in hand, look for a round dispatch: For the Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand, Joh. iii. 35. Had he laid his hand upon it, or but touched the bread, virtue would have gone out of him, if he had pleased; but to grasp the Loaves, or to hold them in his Palm, it was a full signification that his power and liberality were eminently met together: for it is that hand which openeth and filleth all things. The Apostles knew where these Loaves were forthcoming, but they set not their mind upon them, they would not meddle with them. The People were an hungry, and far from home, in a desert place, where there was nothing but grass. Two hundred penyworth of bread perchance would have staid their stomachs, and Philip thought that would be too little. Howsoever they had not the money to buy it. Five barley Loaves and two Fishes were all they had in store, and who durst take them forth and show them openly, lest they should scramble and quarrel for them? The People were ready to stone Moses and Aaron in the Wilderness when they were pinched with scarcity of food. Therefore some gave counsel to send them away betimes, certainly suspecting a mutiny. But here is an accepit which runs cross to all their imaginations. Christ betakes himself to those means which they contemned; instead of dismissing the Congregation, he calls them closer together: instead of referring them to the Villages round about, he contents them amply in that barren place. Instead of the Tumult which was dreaded the issue came to great applause and admiration. In all their days they had never seen such a Feast as this Table in the Wilderness, where every Crum became an Handful: Great things became vile, and vile things became great by the dispensation of Christ. In his own Person the stone which the builders refused became the head of the corner: and in his own hand the Loaves which the Disciples refused became such a Banquet as never was prepared. Lord take it first into thine own hand, whatsoever we receive, and then it will increase and prosper. Give us our daily bread, and if it be thy gift for no more than one day, the virtue of it will last a year. Labor not then so much to have good things, as to have them of God. As David did quickly cast up a cheerful account of all his estate, O Lord my God all the store that we have it cometh of thine hand, 1 Chron. xxix. 16. whatsoever drops from his fingers is sweet smelling Myrrh, Cant. v. 5. but all false ways he utterly abhors, and whatsoever comes in by fraud, by extortion, by cavillation, it will consume away as fast as ever the Loaves and Fishes increased.

But surely the whole quaternion of Evangelists have set down this Preamble to the Miracle with such joint consent, He took the Loaves, that it cannot choose but have some depth of observation in it. St. Chrysostom hath reached it so far that great numbers follow him, namely, that our Savior did impatronize himself thereby to the work which followed, and published himself from thence to be the Author of the Miracle. It was alike easy to his Omnipotency to say the word, and to make bread of nothing: Or to take a little into his hand, and to amplify it into a great quantity. Depend upon this, what we have he can increase, and what we have not he can create, it is all one to him. But by handling the lump, and so giving virtue to the augmentation, the People might behold him as the Fountain of all Power and Majesty, and say with the Lycaonians, God is come down unto us in the likeness of man. Hear what that Father says more unto it, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . It was very expedient that the People should be taught these two Articles of their belief, that Christ came from the Father, and that he was equal with the Father. The one must be proved by power, the other by holiness: The one by taking the Loaves, the other by giving thanks: The one by doing all, the other by calling upon God, when he did all. Put the case he had looked up to Heaven, and furnished them with satiety of victuals out of nothing, what would the multitude have said? why, this comes from above, this is God's doing, and this Jesus is a Prophet that's come from God. O but can human reason be brought to no better opinion of him? 'tis true, whatsoever can be done, they that are unbelievers may gain-say it, yet to subdue all contradiction in them that are willing to obey the truth, he took the bread; and took the glory to himself to make every loaf content a thousand, that they might cry out with the Centurion, this is of a Truth the Son of God, and it is no robbery to say he is equal with the Father. So at Cana in Galilee he did not create wine when they wanted, and supplied them out of nothing, but he turned water into wine, water of their own fetching, as this was bread of their own bringing, a pre-existent matter, whose substance they knew to be vulgar and natural: he wrought upon these sensible things before their eyes, that they might impute the transmutation to his own Divinity. Unto which of the Prophets therefore can you liken him in this Miracle? Moses obtained Manna from Heaven by prayer and supplication: Christ did this by his own hand. The Widows Barrel of Meal did not waste, nor her Cruise of Oil fail, it was Elias his prediction, not his immediate operation. Elisha bad his Servant set twenty barley loaves before an hundred men, they did eat, and left thereof, yet for his own part he did not meddle with it, because he would have the children of the Prophets ascribe all to the Word of the Lord: they did according to that spirit upon them, which was circumscribed and limited. God had lent them a tongue to declare his noble acts, but the hand which did all was far above, the hand of power was radical in Heaven: therefore this is a distinctive note to know the Master from his Servants, he took the loaves.

He took them indeed; but for justice sake it is fit to ask, unde habuit? from whence he had them. A mean question many times hath found a grave resolution: it may prove so in this. Whence he had them? Why, some say the Disciples did own them: for they answer him, Matt. xiv. 17. We have here but five loaves and two fishes. The words bear it as if they were theirs, because their Master was wont to carry them into desolate places, and to detein them there all night, it was their wonted providence to carry some small refection with them in their journey; as it appears Matth. xvi. 7. When our Savior bad them beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the Sadducees, they reasoned among themselves, saying, it is because we have taken no bread: Then they had not, yet usually they do not forget it: and it may be this was their provision for the present season. But the votes of them are more that conceive they did belong to some other. In the ninth verse Andrew says, there is a Lad here which hath five barley loaves and two fishes, that he did belong to him and his fellow Disciples, 'tis neither in the Book, nor in the nearest likelihood. Baronius says that it is descended by Tradition that this Lad was St. Martialis, who became an holy Martyr, and was Bishop of Limoges in France. Whosoever the party was, if it be yielded, as no man can refuse it, that these Viands were his own: how came they into Christ's hands without bargain and sale, for ought we read? When Offertories were frequent in the Church, every Sunday a voluntary oblation presented to the Lord by all that could give, then the answer to this scruple was quickly understood. If this were St. Martialis, piety revealed itself in him in his tender years, for I may safely say, he surrendered these things up unto Christ as a willing Offertory, as soon as he knew that our Lord did ask for them. No offices of Religion will vanish away insensibly so soon as those that be chargeable. For can any man tell how free Oblations are quite laid down, and disused among us, unless it be at some Solemn Festivities, and Magnificent Funerals? no reason, but that two much thrift hath mar'd our thankfulness. Abel, and Noah, and Abraham did not forget it in those Sacrifices which they offered up unto the Lord, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The Law of nature egg'd them on, gratitude provoked them, say the Clementine Constitutions, to which I can give no less than the antiquity of the fourth Century. The Israelites, beside their Tithes and First-fruits, and other Ceremonies to which they were taskt, were left to their own discretion for the Choice Vow, and the Freewill Offering; and they performed it sumptuously, knowing that it was a glory due to the name of the Lord to bring an offering into his House of their own accord, Psal. xcvi. 8. The lights that shined in this piety under the Gospel was the poor Widow, that cast her two Mites freely into the Corb • n; Mary Magdalene that poured a Box of Spicknard upon Christ's head of great estimation: beside the Wise men of the East, that cast their Gold and Myrrh before his Cradle; and Nicodemus that dedicated his hundred pound weight of Aloes and Spices to his dead Body in the Sepulcher. It were ostentation of reading to point to free Oblations out of Antiquity, for there was no Age or Church without them. Happy was he whose life was accounted so unreprovable, that the Bishop would suffer him to bring a Gift to the Altar. Sycophants, Drunkards, Whoremongers, unjust Judges, all scandalous persons were turned back disgracefully with their Oblation in their hand, and it would not be taken: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , but such as possessed any substance by lawful increase, they did voluntarily bring a Portion to the Lord, to acknowledge their Tenure, that they held all from him, and their debt, that they owed all unto him. And this is pressed unto you by putting the case, if Jesus took the loaves by free donation.

But what shall we say if he commanded them before they were offered to him? Bring them hither to me, so he speaks in St. Matthew. By what Title did he require them be brought unto him? or by what authority did he take them, if another had the right possession? even by that authority wherein he was invested in the dominion of all earthly things, by that Prerogative whereby he sent for the Ass and the Colt when he rid into Jerusalem: Bring them unto me, and if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say the Lord hath need of them, and straight way he will send them. By that propriety which he had in the Gadarenes Swine, by that right which he had in the Fig tree which he cursed: manifest signs that he did dispose of all things as he pleased, without asking leave of the owners. Belike, say some Papalines, there was a temporal Sovereignty in our Savior over all things here beneath, and this did rest upon St. Peter after him, and is now immanent in St. Peters Successors, all the Kingdoms of this World are theirs, nec Constantine dedit quickquam Sylvestro, in strict justice Constantine gave nothing to Pope Sylvester, for he was Lord of all before: a poor plea for so proud a purchase. And surely Pilate was more just in this point than those flattering Canonists. The Jews exclaimed against our Savior that he made himself a King; Pilate could find no such fault in him, but pronounced him innocent. And well he might, for all things were given unto him by the Father, yet not by ruling all things like a King in his Kingdom, but by uniting the human nature to the Godhead; and that ye doubt it not but that he had power over all Creatures as he was Man by the influence of that hypostatical union, he had a name written on his thigh King of Kings, and Lord of Lord's, Revel. xix. 16. super femur, mark that, upon his thigh, that is upon his human nature. Now what should I call this Dominion of Christ's, whereby he was made Heir of all things, Heb. i. 2. Surely it surpasseth all description, and it hath no name. But I am sure he held it not after a Regal way, as David and Solomon were Kings in Israel. It was transcendent above human Majesty, commanding Men and Angels, Heaven and Earth, Quick and Dead, things sensible and insensible; yet withal he was most subject to Rulers, paying Tribute to Caesar, and refusing to divide a small Inheritance between them that were contentious. A mystical Kingdom, and not to be expressed: ruling over all, and yet most obedient to Magistrates, commanding everything under Heaven, and yet ministering to his Servants; seized of no Inheritance, yet having right in every Inheritance, quod de suo non habuit, sumpsit de alieno, says St. Austin of these Loavs, he had not bread of his own, but that which another had became his own; there was a justice paramount, wherein no mortal Creature succeeds him, which gave him interest in all things: Therefore without offense or injury to the owner he took the Loaves.

But if he had them from his Disciples, amicorum omnia communia, then he might usurp them without any litigious brabble moved against his power; and that the possession was theirs may be as true as the contrary: the truth inclines rather to that side, as I conceive, because our Savior said unto them, date vos illis, give ye them to eat; and they, and none else, took away the twelve Baskets of that which remained. And was this the purveyance which they had made against hunger, five barley loaves and two fishes? little enough, and coarse enough, God knows: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says St. Chrysostom, this was the Philosophy and austere temperance of the Disciples, they abhorred luxury and superfluity: Yet do you miss nothing to make up the Meal? where was their drink? the fish is called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 by our Evangelist, it had been dried before the fire; now that and bread made of Barley had need to be washed down. But what said the Roman Captain to his Army, Nilum habetis & vinum quaeritis? they that had the whole River of Nile before them need not complain of thirst: so they that were near to the Sea of Tiberias took no thought for any other Beverage: it was a Lake of wholesome and fresh water, which after the custom of the Jews is called a Sea, if it be large and spacious; and with that they were contented to quench their thirst. Our Savior furnished them once with wine at the joyful Solemnity of Marriage; they looked not for the like at every occasion: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , it is a pleasant liquor says the Poet, but it is the Milk of Venus. They declined all incentives of lust, and lived almost after Daniel's rate with pulse and water. When Christians lived among the Heathen, they were detected by their parsimony and moderation of diet: though it were to save their lives they could not gurmandize like Epicures, Nos oleris comas nos siliqua faeta legumine paverit innocuis epulis, says Prudentius; by temperance and fasting they got the mastery of the concupiscence of the flesh. But above all Christians especially sobriety descended from the Apostles upon Ecclesiastics; it deserved a censure in them to exceed in delicious fare: the Canons are extant, and the proofs are authentic, that the great and solemn Fasts of the Church, well known to us, were observed by them a good while before they were admitted by the People. None know better than we, says St. Austin, that when temperance directs us to deny ourselves those things that are lawful, we are the better instructed to shun the sinful works of the Devil, which are altogether unlawful. The Apostles are our Forerunners in this frugality, or rather austerity of food: and yet to see, that for all this they were scandalized for riotous libertines. The imputation against them according to St. Matthew is this, that they did not fast when the Disciples of John did. In St. Luke more palpably spiteful, they tell our Savior, that his Disciples did eat and drink: why not? would they have them macerate themselves with willful famishment? but could envy itself lay excess or intemperance to their charge? I would we were as clear from the fault as they? we that abuse the fertilness of our Land to rankness of gluttony; we that pay more to the belly than we owe to the whole body: who almost is not an Apicius that can maintain it? what sin did ever grow up in any State to a more prodigious extremity? but if the droughts of three years successively threatening dearth and scarcity will not affrighten this sin from our Table, it is not a piece of a Sermon that will beat it down. Yet I pray you remember that sharp Epiphonema of the Parable; These three years have I come and found no fruit, cut it down. Nay God defend. Why then expiate your surfeitings with Apostolical abstinence, and forget not what a thrifty pittance they had in store, even five barley loaves and two fishes.

And was this all? and were they pleased that Christ should take that little from them, and give it away to strangers? yes it appears by Andrew's answer they did not grudge it. We have no more, it is as good as nothing to feed such a multitude. This implies as if he spoke the rest, they shall have it all, and much good do them, if that will content them. And was he so willing to part with that which was necessary for his own sustenance, he had no more? And will not we bestow our superfluities upon them that want? Every luxuriant Vine must be largely pruned; and he that hath much must scatter bountifully. The Vine doth not miss the redundant branch, and a rich man's Purse is like a River, that doth not fall for a spoonful of contribution. But when a poor man conjects heartily to any pious use, his faith is proved, as well as his charity is exercised; for it is a sign that he believes that God will sustain him, though he have emptied himself of all his substance in a small Oblation. There are three things says Gregory that are most holy Sacrifices, castitas in juventute, sobrietas in ubertate, liberalitas in paupertate, liberality in poverty, chastity in youth, moderation in plenty. And St. Chrysostom infers it from the readiness of the Disciples to part with all their homely Viands, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , maunder not that you are scanted, and have but little, he that hath anything hath somewhat to spare to lend to the needy. When the poor Widow had confer'd two Mites, no less than all her living, unto the godly uses of the Temple, Christ avouched it in her praise, it was more than all the rich ones had bestowed: That is, not by absolute, but by proportionable quantity, as Aquinas states it: not measuring the magnitude of the Gift, but the sincereness of the Charity. Non perpendit quantum, sed ex quanto proferatur, says Bede. God doth not estimate how much was given, but out of how much it was taken. It was more for her to give two mites, than for Zacchaeus to give a talent: So it was more for these Disciples to surrender up their five loaves and two fishes, than for another to keep open house for all the poor in Jerusalem. And these shall be the limits of the first point, our Savior's bodily preparation to the ensuing Miracle, accepit, he took the loaves.

And what more beside accepit? For the Miracle came not off without another preparation, and that is Ghostly, Postquam gratias egisset, after he had given thanks. Best take it with the full allowance as the other Evangelists have enlarged it, that beside giving thanks he looked up to heaven and blessed. So then before he brought the sign to pass he glorified his Father three ways; with his Eye, he looked up to heaven: with his Tongue, he gave thanks: and with his Spirit, he blessed. If you will scan the value of an action by the rarity of it in holy Scripture, and by the incidency upon none but great occasions, then both these do concur in this, that Christ looked up to heaven. I call it to mind that it happened three times, (that is not often) now at this instant, when he was about the miracle of the Loaves: Once again when he raised Lazarus to life, Joh. xi. 41. And once more when he began his Prayer to his Father, but a few minutes before he was apprehended to be crucified, Joh. xvii. 1. And the Tradition is of long continuance, that he lifted up his eyes to heaven the fourth time, when he consecrated the Elements at his Last Supper. The Liturgies ascribed to St. James, and St. Mark do remember it, and upon the credulity of the example the Canon of the Mass in the Church of Rome commands it. At all times, you may observe, they were high attempts when the Son of God did use this Ceremony to look up to heaven. It came from a good principle, it tended to a good end, and very good use is to be made of it. The first good principle or impulsive cause is mercy: He saw a great Multitude in want, and destitute of sustenance, and that was the provocation to make him fix his eyes upon the heavens to call down relief. Our Evangelist in the fifth verse of this Chapter notes that he lift up his eyes, meaning that he did affectionately behold a multitude of People all bescanted of food, and that was the preparative to make him look higher, to look up to heaven. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is his own word in St. Mark, My bowels yearn to provide for this people in their extremity of hunger. These entrails of compassion make us bold to look up to God, compassion is that Optique Nerve that draws up the eye lid, and encourageth us to seek for grace, because our eyes send forth the visual rays of Charity. Better it is to want Eyes, and Legs, and Arms, than to lack these entrails of Pity. You may carve the proportion of a man in Stone, or cast it in Brass, a fair Figure it shall be, but it hath no Bowels: So he is no better than a Lump of Brass or Stone that hath not the Affections of Clemency, an Idol that hath Ears and hears not, that hath Eyes and sees not: but he that hath the tender heart-strings of mercy in his bosom, he may have confidence to look up to heaven. Secondly, It is Devotion which draws up our looks to God. It is a sign that the interior contemplation is directed thither, when the exterior glances fly aloft. The Eye cannot refrain to fix itself upon that object which the mind doth passionately desire. Therefore it is become an act of Latria, or religious veneration to advance the eyes to heaven in the fervor of Prayer, Unto thee lift I up mine eyes O thou that dwellest in the heavens, Psal. cxxiii. And to look up to Idols is all one as to worship Idols in the Phrase of Ezekiel. Cast your eyes therefore to the Throne of God, when you address yourself to Prayer, that Love and Zeal may be struck out of the fire of the Eye. I do not press it as inseparable Ceremony, for the humble Publican did well, when he thought so abjectly of himself, that he durst not lift up his eyes to heaven, says St. Chrysostom like an Orator, lest he should find the Catalogue of his sins written in the Firmament to accuse him. Yet a perpetual affectation of winking, or covering the face in Prayer seems not to me so laudable; for why should we debar ourselves to praise God with our most heavenly sense?

Next of all it carries us along with it to know what end Christ had in working this Miracle. The root of all was above, and he work'd downward, he set his Fathers glory before his eyes, and he directed this, and all his actions to the propagation of it. To feed such a scattered Rout so liberally, so unexpectedly, you may be sure it would spread his renown far and wide, they would cry him up for a bountiful Lord in all places. This was the fashion of the rising men in Rome, about the time that Christ lived, to fill the People with congiaries, and Feasts, and win their applause by cramming their belly: But our Savior's conceit was above this earth, he had none but coelestial intentions. And therefore when the People out of admiration would have prosecuted it to a most honorable issue, and have made him a King, he shifted away into a Mountain, that he might not be found, at the fifteenth verse of this Chapter. He neither began this work for temporal glory, nor would let it end in temporal glory, for he looked up to heaven. Whether it be in sustaining the poor, or in any other Christian work that flows from charity, do it that ye may have honor of God, and beware of the leaven of Ambition, that you have no flat sinister thoughts in it, or human policies. Popularity is like a thief in a Candle, it makes it blaze much, but it quickly wastes it. He that doth good, and looks up steadfastly to heaven makes God his Debtor: he that looks asquint to the praise of men shall be paid with ignominy.

You know now out of what Principles Christ did this, you are sure for what end he did it. From both we have this Lesson, Let our eyes look unto the eyes of our Master. When he looks upward, let not us look downward, but let us mind heavenly things. The frame of our bodies heaves us thither, Erectos ad sidera tollere vultus, it bids us look to God; and that way should our soul turn, it came from thence, and thither it should draw again. The composition of Nature therefore would not have us to be Moales rooting into the earth, but grace goes further, and would have us to be Eagles flying above the Clouds. Aquila nidum sibi in arduis construit; Job xxxix. 27. The Eagle builds his nest on high. It is the Emblem of a Christian, whose Spirit is so transported with the meditation of a better life, that he walks as it were among the Stars. The soul is not where it lives, but where it loves. Therefore St. Paul said, that his whole Negotiation was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a conversation which was in heaven. Here is hunger and thirst, there is indeficient satiety: Here are Envyings and Seditions, there are sweet Hymns and Hallelujah's: Here are Worms and Corruption, there are Angels and Immortality. And what a joyous thing is it to have a pledge of this happiness by looking towards it before the time be come about that we should possess it? Most willingly therefore will I send up mine eyes as Harbingers before me, to make room for the whole man, both soul and body. Laertius says of Empedocles, that he answered one that asked him what was the end of his life, Ut coelum aspiciam, to view the heavens. What could be the meaning of this Philosopher? To pore upon it like a Star-gazer? I cannot but imagine more acuteness in him, that he discerned the felicity of man was laid up in those supernal places. God is everywhere; We circumscribe him not in heaven when we look up thither. It is not the Throne of his Presence, but of his Glory: But because we should have narrow and gross cogitations, if we sought him only in these fading things: Therefore for our Hope sake, for our Consolation sake, especially for the elevation of our mind, we turn our eyes towards him in that place where there is no mixture of mutability. Exalt your Spirit, that you live as fellow Citizens with the Saints, and of the household of God, Eph. ii. 19. Ascend up on high as belonging to that Church, which hath the Moon under her feet, Rev. xii. 1. Fix your nest in the top of the Rocks with the Eagle; if you make your nest on the ground, the foot of man and beast will tread on it. If you contrive it within the reach of the arm it is easily plucked down: If within the boughs of a large tree it will be pelted. Build high enough, as the Eagle doth, and then you are safe from wracks and injuries. In all the whirl and revolutions of fortune this is our magnetical reduction, look up to heaven.

And give thanks together, as it follows to be handled. From hence we have all that belongs to the being, and to the well-being of Nature. Whatsoever we want, whatsoever we dread and fear it comes from above. Frost and Snow, Rain and fruitful seasons; food for the body, grace for the soul, heaven supplies us with all these, with more than we can ask or think. How properly therefore doth this holy Office as it were take up the train of the former, and come after it? First, he looked up to heaven, and then 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . he gave thanks. In one of us I confess they piece well together, in the person of a mortal man that lives by pension and allowance from the Lord, in the person of David, as it is Psal. viii. When I consider the heavens, &c. What is man that thou art mindful of him? Or the Son of man that thou visitest him? But it is a strange word in the mouth of Christ. He give thanks? Who hath obliged him by any favor? Or to whose benignity is he beholding? All his works praise him, and his Saints give thanks unto him: but he is engaged to none, there must be one first cause that communicates itself to all things, and receives of nothing, and that is God of God, very God of very God, the King of glory, Jesus Christ. To take off this Objection with reason, first, Beneficium accepit in humanâ naturâ; He took the form of a servant upon him, and in that exinanition he was capable of a benefit to be done unto him. Therefore he thank'd his Father that he would bring that to pass by his Omnipotency, which he was purposed to effect by his Human Nature. Nay, he did not divide himself from his Father in this giving of thanks: But the Son of Mary, that was flesh of our flesh, gave thanks unto himself, as he was God Eternal. It is so through an ineffable Dispensation. An Eternal Decree was ratified that Christ being made man should be glorified in working this Miracle, for which Decree he gives thanks unto the Godhead, for so it was decreed that Thanksgiving should precede before the Decree was executed. And yet note it further, because the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in the Manhood bodily, Christ did not go about his work precario, he did not pray that power might be given him to multiply the five Loaves into five thousand portions; that was not to be craved now which was inherent in him from the beginning, but being certain to effect that which he undertook, he gave thanks before the effect was produced.

Secondly, Beneficium accepit in membris. It was a gracious Donative which was now about to be bestowed upon the People that were gathered together, and out of a fellow-feeling to those that were his own, our Savior gave thanks for the kindness shewn to his Members. And well I may say he made this grateful acknowledgment to his Father for their sakes that pertained to his body: for there is not that tender-hearted man that comforts a poor Christian in his necessities but he will say as much to him; In as much as ye have done it to one of the least of my brethren, ye have done it unto me. The Prophet David hath spoken of his love after the same manner, whereby he united himself unto us, Psal. lxviii. 18. Thou hast led captivity captive; Dona accepisti in hominibus, so the Vulgar Latin; and it is so verbatim in the Original, thou hast received gifts in men. He gives all, and he takes all; for he takes that to himself which is distributed unto all. As it was the foundation of the Spartan Commonwealth, Ne scirent privatim vivere; To live rather for the advancement of the public than of the private Weale: So it is a corner stone of Christian Brotherhood, Ne scirent homines privatim gratias agere; Not to pinch up their gratitude into that narrowness, as to bless the name of God for no mercies but such as are conferred upon themselves. Quomodo idiota dicet amen? Let me apply that of St. Paul in a Parody, he that is all for himself is that Idiot, that when public Thanksgiving is made knows not how to say Amen. But as Christ gave thanks for the Members, so must the Members one for another: For in the Union of Faith, and in the Bond of Charity all blessings diffused far and wide upon our brethren are our proper benefits.

Thirdly, All Writers that handle my Text strike upon this Key, that we are taught from hence to make some holy Preface, to say Grace, as we call it, before we feed our body. When we sit down to meat, Quasi ad beneficentiae Dei concionem accedimus; we are presented as it were with a Sermon of God's benignity, not in word, but in deed, and therefore it is Decorum that we should begin with a Prayer. So did the Jews yery anciently, the young Maidens, whom Saul met told him so much, that the People would not eat till Samuel came, because he doth bless the Sacrifice, and afterward they that be bidden eat. We Christians have sufficient from St. Paul to make us diligent observers of this Ceremony. Says he, Every Creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving, for it is sanctified by the Word of God, and Prayer, 1 Tim. iv. 4, 5. It is not sufficient, says Theodoret upon it, that the Creature of God is good, but it must be sanctified also before we eat it. That which was good by nature the name of God invoked upon it makes it wholesome and holy. Either our body may fall into some distemper, or our soul into some fearful sin, unless we begin and end our refection in the name of the Lord. But the Apostle chargeth us ex abundanti, that the Word of God and Prayer be conjoined to it, that is, says Vatablus, to attend to the reading of sacred Scripture beside the ordinary Benediction. So it is in use to this day with them that lead a Regular and a Scholastical strictness: and was not omitted of the very Heathen, that had a grain of Philosophy in their disposition; So Cornelius Nepos commends Pomponius Atticus, Nunquam sine aliquâ lection apud eum coenatum est; He never supped but somewhat was read out of a learned Author before him. His mind did ruminate upon Knowledge, while his teeth did chew his bread, lest like an horse his head should be only in the Manger. And those natural men began from Religion whensoever they feasted, for before they tasted anything they did offer or sequester a first fruits to their God's, as Plutarch says in his Symposiacks. But as for Christians, though it were no Feast, though their Fare were most course and slender, yet says Tertullian, Non prius discumbitur quàm oratio ad Deum praegustetur, aeque oratio convivium dirimit. And Gregory tells us, (it is in his Dialogues indeed) that a man that eat but a few herbs, and blest not God before the eating, was possessed with a Devil. I will not say upon so poor a Repast, but where there is a full Table, I will say it with Origen, that there is a kind of bewitching in meats and drinks, a kind of luxurious devil that dances in the Dish: Which made holy Job offer Sacrifice for his Sons and Daughters, when they had spent some days in liberal entertainments. For though I may charitably suppose that the Children of so Venerable a man were educated in Sobriety, yet it is an hard thing to be confined within an unblameable temperance. Quis est qui non aliquantulùm rapitur extrametas necessitatis? Says St. Austin in his Confessions, and yet a man of admirable abstinence. Who is it that doth not pamper himself with more than that which is barely necessary? And therefore all men had need to protect themselves with Prayer against excess and superfluity. If Christ thought it meet when five thousand were to be fed with five Loaves and two Fishes, what need have we to be munitioned against Luxury? Where Quails and Manna are but homely fare in respect of our condited delicates; Seria, ludicra, verba, jocos trina superna regat pietas, says a sacred Poet. You may be serious, you may be frolic at Table, and mirth is more beseeming than sadness at that season, yet begin all in the name of God, that seriousness may not turn into melancholy, nor mirth into scurrility. Fie on their corrupt ears, that love to be tickled with lascivious Ballads while they are pampering their belly. Penelopes Suitors were great Gluttons, and Minstrils they had meal by meal, but blind Homer says any new Song would please them, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , yet these were nebulones Alcinoique. Now a days it must be obscene, or it is nothing. O these that abuse both the sustenance of the Body, and the sweet delight of the Spirit, they are neither worthy of Meat nor Music, but are reserved for howling and gnashing of teeth.

Now I shall come to an end for this time. For I have done with that word of sacred and ghostly preparation which St. John useth, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , he gave thanks, the other Evangelists use the term 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , be blessed. That you may learn that to bless and to give thanks are words convertible, says St. Cyril, that signify the same thing, he makes no more of it. And it is true that at sometimes they are Synonyma, as 1 Cor. xiv. 16. When thou shalt bless with the Spirit, how shall he that supplies the place of the unlearned say Amen at the giving of thanks? There they must be the same, but here they must be divers, for Christ gave thanks unto his Father, but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says St. Luke, he blessed the bread. To give thanks was the Piety of his Human Nature, but this blessing came from the virtue of his Divine Nature. He did infuse a new miraculous quality into the Loaves, and imparted a seminal power unto them of increase and multiplication. I know not what ails some Interpreters, I think they are afraid of Magic, that they do so avoid this word, and turn it from the right signification when our Savior is said to bless any outward matter that was before him. But saving their Criticisms, wherein they are most laboriously impertinent to confound it with Prayer and giving of thanks, I find a threefold blessing of the Creature in the Gospel, Communis, Miraculosa, Sacramentalis. First, at a common Supper, (for so I conceive it) Luk. xxiv. 30. Our Savior blessed bread. Not as if there were any impurity in the Creature, especially there could be none to him. Deo artifici tam mundus est porcus quam agnus, says St. Austin. But it teacheth us to invocate God's goodness, that those things which we use may be salutiferous unto us. And herein I cannot deride them, that have a Ceremony to bless their Honey and Eggs on Easter day, their Pastures on St. Stephens day, their Wine on St. Johns day, their Orchards and Gardens on the Assumption, as they style it, of the blessed Virgin. There is no vanity in these common Benedictions. Secondly, There is a blessing of the Creature with a mighty hand when a Miracle is wrought. So these Barly Loaves were blessed, exalted to an enlargement above their nature, and this is to be adored, and not to be imitated. If you would have it inquired into, whether this blessing was executed with any outward Ceremony, I have no resolute answer for it: Whether Christ did use some set form of Prayers or words, or used the imposition of his hands, or the gesture of his body in some remarkable Figure I cannot tell. One of these are not unlikely, because the Passengers that went to Emmaus knew him by his blessing and breaking of bread. It may be they had been at the spending of these five Loaves in the Wilderness, and knew the form of his customary Benediction. Cajetan puts it off with a trifling conjecture, that he was used to break bread with that evenness, as if it had been cut with a Knife, and that discovered him. It is more likely, I take it, that he was known by a decent and outward Ceremony of Benediction. Lastly, There is a Sacrament all Benediction of the outward Elements: So the water of Baptism is sanctified to be the Pool of Regeneration. So our Savior did not only give thanks, but he blessed and consecrated both the Bread and the Cup which he divided among his Disciples. No doubt in the beginning of the Supper, before they fed of the Lamb, he had blessed the Table. That he did as the Son of man: But afterward he began an eximious and singular Benediction for a new work as the Son of God, he exalted them thereby to be the lively Sacrament of his body and blood, Et non sunt quod natura formavit, sed quod benedictio consecravit, says St. Ambrose; They are no more that which Nature hath made them, but that for which then Christ, and since we in our Priestly Benediction do consecrate them. The hand of Jesus is with us in our work, and the blessing, &c.

THE SECOND SERMON UPON

JOHN vi. 11.

He distributed to the Disciples, and the Disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the fishes as much as they would.

T His is the second time; I take leave to remember you of it, that I have propounded this Text before you. To treat upon a Text of multiplying and increase, it may be it hath some influence upon the words of the speaker. Or if not so, yet it being a branch of a famous Story out of which our Church hath compiled three several Gospels (observe your Common-prayer Book, and you will find no less) I say that which hath supplied us with three Gospels, may easily afford us occasion of two Sermons. It is so circumstanced with mysteries, that as twelve Baskets did no more than contain that which was left of five loavs and two fishes, so when I have spoken once and again upon this Theme, the remainder which I must omit, will be manifold more than I shall be able to deliver. It came to pass at such an opportunity, as in reason you may be confirmed that our Savior meditated some great matter: for setting all occurences in right order, John the Baptist was newly beheaded, and his blood yet warm, Matth. xiv. It was as the Devil would have it, the burning Light was put out, the Forerunner cut off, the mouth of the great Witness was stopped, he that divulged Christ's glory over all Judea. Now his fame will be less bruited abroad than it was before: not a whit; for immediately as it were on purpose to supply the place of that mighty Prophet, Christ amazeth the people with this Table that he spread in the Wilderness; the rumour of it filled Jerusalem and all Judea: so that Satan might say with Herod, this is John the Baptist that is risen from the dead.

And it happened to the greater glory of the Son of God, that all parties were never so generally pleased with any wonder that he did. In this Gospel of St. John he healed a man that had been infirm eight and thirty years: It liked them not, because it was done on the Sabbath day. He told the Pharisees their secret sins, they told him he was a Samaritan and had a Devil. He gave eyes to one that was born blind: but who durst confess it? for he that did was sure to be excommunicated. He raised Lazarus to life after he had been dead four days. This made the High-Priests broil with anger, that they concluded in their Council it was expedient to put him to death. Only this Miracle was taken with the right hand, and for ought appears, escaped all malignancy and sinister interpretation. If it sped so well with them, that observed no more from it, but that they did eat and were filled. (I speak it upon good authority, the Lord rebukes them for it in this Chapter, ver. 27. That they labored for the meat that perished, and not for meat that endured to everlasting life. ) If these had such liking to it, how much more considerable is it to us, who may collect the highest mysteries of Religion out of these lowly figures. First you may discern in this the communicableness of charity, which passeth the good things of fortune from hand to hand to those that need, as these barley loaves were derived from the Fountain to the River, and from the River to the smaller Brooks. Secondly you may see no less than Christ and his Church knit together by fit junctures and sinews, his influence moves in his Apostles, the Apostles dispense his gifts unto the people, which is the harmony that keeps all in tune in the house of God. Nay thirdly here is the very Sacrament of the Sacrament: As the bread in this Miracle was blessed from Christ's lips, and drew virtue from thence above its nature; so in the Lord's Supper the Word infuseth itself into the Element, and it becomes a Sacrament. These things without peradventure the Jews did not wot of, but we have light enough to descry them from this Story, He distributed to the Disciples, &c. I am constant to that partition of the whole verse which I delivered heretofore, a preparation to a Miracle, and the Miracle itself. The preparation as I noted I dispatched it, was bodily and ghostly, bodily in assumpsit, Jesus took the loaves; ghostly in gratias egit, or benedixit, he gave thanks. The Miracle consists plainly of these three Members. Here is the distribution, which is Christ's act, He distributed to the Disciples. 2. The subdistribution, that was the Disciples Office, They distributed to them that were set down. 3. Here is the reception, that did belong to the People, They did all eat and were filled, they had as much as they would. Distinctly upon these three in their order.

There is but one giver in the Text, the rest that are mentioned are all borrowers; to him therefore as to the Patron of the Miracle give we the precedency in this Narration, He distributed. That Pronoun and Verb together make a rich conjunction, and yield such an ample Revenue as the whole earth cannot receive: For all the wealth of this World, and our Portion of glory in the Text is lodged in the room of these few syllables, He distributed. But to lay hold of it with the right hand, and as it belongs to the matter which is before me, I consider it as it conducts us to the two regent Attributes of the Divine nature, Power and goodness, or in terms as easy to be remembered, as a Miracle, or as a Benefit. First as a Miracle: If the Son of God had communicated all that was before him, and no more, as far as it would reach, the Company that was with him had barely seen his courtesy; but since it pleased him to increase the loaves more than a thousand fold above their natural quantity, it was an argument of his Majesty and Omnipotency. Mighty things are those which thou hast done O Lord, and who is like unto thee? What a memorable Feast was here set forth out of an handful of meat? Was ever hunger conquered with such small provision? Were ever five thousand persons tabled at so cheap a rate? nothing was made ready, and yet nothing wanted, no Ovens were heated, yet they had their fill of bread without scarcity; no nets were cast to drag the Seas, yet fish abounded with them to their utmost satiety. In brief, a Child did keep and carry all the food that was among them, and yet here was an open House for all comers.

Julian that great Apostate studied Magic, and all secret unlawful Arts under that great Sorcerer Jamblichus the Philosopher. His desires were to make the Scriptures, and in them the Miracles of our Savior suspected or despicable. Well, when he and his infernal Partners had tried all their cunning, what could they produce correspondent to this unquestionable increase of five loaves and two fishes? why it was too manifest to be impeached, and too great to be imitated. Cast seeds of corn into the ground, and we look for an augmentation, but with many conditions, and after much leisure. First the bosom of the earth, after it is well manured, must take it, the dews and rain must liquor it, the Sun must cherish it, the seasons of the Spring and Harvest must give it blade and mature it: but Christ had all these in the palm of his hand eminenter, he took a fragment of a barley loaf into his hand, and to teach his Church that his grasp had in it the fecundity of the earth, the moisture of the showers, the influence of the Sun, the comprehension of all times and seasons, and the excellency of all power, as he broke it, it enlarged itself far beyond those goodly ears of Wheat which Pharaoh saw in his Dream, and every crumb became an handful, quinque panes erant quinque semina, non terrae mandata sed ab illo qui terram fecit multiplicata, says St. Austin; the five loaves were after the manner of five seeds of corn, not fructifying in the earth, but multiplying in his hand that made the earth. But because all kind of pulse and grane, yea though it were Manna, itself that came from Heaven, is of that condition, that it must run through much art before it be made bread: but that which Christ brake and gave to his Disciples was bread in the first existence and production: therefore St. Hilary had rather compare the loaves that swelled thus by Christ's blessing to a River, whose fountain supplies one wave to run after another with an indifferent succession, and whatsoever the Cattle drink riseth again out of the Spring, and the channel is always filled: so the loaves received no diminution by the portions which were broken off, sed quicquid aufertur usurario quodam meatu reparatur; nay the principal was not only repaired, but it was requited with interest.

Having stood at gaze a while to behold that which was done, shall we walk round about it as it were, to observe, if we can, after what manner it was done: he that takes upon him to search into the modus, how a Miracle was effected, must beware of two rocks in his way, that he do not distrust and say in his mind how is it possible to be? and that he do not circumscribe the Divine power and say, necessarily thus it must be. Steering myself by these advisoes, I say, first, Christ could amplify that little portion of bread into those great exceedings, by creating some new substance, to eek out that which was in his hand before, qui sine seminibus operatur semina, he spake the word, and the first seeds that ever grew came out of nothing: nothing is not removed at such vast distance from his power, but that it may be made something, because he is infinite in doing all things. Secondly, He that turned water into wine, with the same virtue could turn the adjacent air into the substance of Bread and Fish. Which sudden alteration in a thin and a fluid body unprepared to take such an impression, was an action proper to God, and no less transcendent than the principal Creation. Thirdly, Though growth be the affection only of a living thing, yet he could make every fragment of those victuals to grow in an instant of time, as the dry stick in Aaron's hand did shoot out Leaves and Almonds. Fourthly, If he pleased it was not difficult to him, but that he could distend and widen that small matter into a far broader substance; as when a little water is rarified, and boils over a Cauldron when it is vehemently heated, or as the Rib which was taken out of Adams side was extended to make a Woman, which surpassed itself an hundred fold in magnitude. Finally, I may miss in all these, for the ways of the Lord are past finding out, and some other means may be used, upon which the eye of Philosophy did never open. You may as soon tell the number of the Stars, as reckon in what divers fashions such an unwonted augmentation should come to pass; and my Text is read in some old Copies very consonant hereunto, that our Savior distributed of both species, Bread and Fish, not quantum volebant, as much as the five thousand desired, but quantum volebat, as much as he would. Whatsoever his will affects his strength effects, or else there were not only impotency, but contristation in the Divine Nature; but his goodness is not bounded by our imperfect desires, nor his truth by our weak understanding. In which title the Apostle had reason to glorify him, Eph. iii. 20. Unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, unto him be glory throughout all ages world without end.

The report which Pliny makes of the Lioness, that she whelps but once in all her life perhaps is mistaken, yet the principle toward which he looked in that report is a good one, that great births and great effects fall out but seldom. Christ did not make many such distributions as this was, and yet it was not like Pliny's Lioness, once more he brought forth the like. First, He shown what strange things his Divinity could command among the Jews (for first he was sent to them.) Soon after, and in the very next Chapter, after the order of St. Matthew, he fed four thousand with seven Loaves and a few Fishes near to Decapolis among those of Tyre and Sidon, and they were Gentiles. If Miracles would prove infallible means to convert sinners (commonly we think so, but it is our ignorance) if they were natural nourishment to beget sound and wholesome Faith, they had seen them oftener. But to lay it open to you that this Miracle, upon which I preach, did not take with them as it deserved; the very same persons that had eat of his Banquet expostulate with Christ in the thirtieth verse of this Chapter, What sign showest thou that we may see and believe thee? What dost thou work? See what it is come to. That which was done but the other day was forgotten; and a Sign they ask for, as if they had never seen any before. Nay, before the end of this Chapter, Ver. 66. Many of these whom he had engaged unto him by his miraculous benefits they dropt off like withered Leaves, from that time many of his Disciples went back, and walked no more with him. No better came of his great work done upon the Loaves and Fishes; no better came of Manna in the days of Moses, which was every morning spread about their Tents. And yet we are persuaded if God would show such tokens among us, it would make us such earnest, such thankful Christians that the kindness would not be lost upon us. And doth that conceit hold you, that to see five thousand fed with a few fragments would do your Faith and Conscience such a pleasure? Why then I tell you, you see a greater Argument of God's infinite power every day in the year. Millions of People being in the world, as many as there be drops in the Sea, yet all these have their daily bread, and the celestial benignity is never exhausted. This is customary indeed, but much more than the other, Et insolita stupendo vident quibus quotidiana viluerunt; Lesser things are admired which happen rarely, the greater works of God, because they are frequent are heeded carelessly. Say not now but ye see cause enough why Christ did actuate this Miracle of the loaves no oftener than twice, he would not stretch his Creatures beyond their natural size to please their idle curiosity. And yet I will tell you of a miraculous multiplication, but I do not wish you to believe, that is done toties quoties as they think fit that have the Relique in their custody. It is the Cross on which our Savior was crucified, (you must not question the Story but that Helen found it in an heap of rubbish at Jerusalem ) many did desire Chips of it out of their devotion, and though innumerous slices of it were cut away, yet it kept its just magnitude, and never varied. The thing was divulged by some, but none of the famous Doctors, one thousand three hundred years ago. One of them that is said to write extemporary Catechisms when he was a young man, compares the Cross which wasted not for all the shivers that were borrowed from it to these Loaves and Fishes. Another says out of his credulous good meaning, that it got this solidity because the blood of him was spilled upon it who saw no corruption. And to this hour, say such as get their living by this craft, this holy wood is not consumed, though it be abundantly imparted. Is this credible that Christ did dispense this power unto any to work a Miracle when they would, as if there were an Office erected to do signs and wonders? Qui Bavtum non odit, he that hath so strong a stomach to digest this, let him swallow such another; that out of three or four nails that pierced our Savior's hands and feet, the Friers can direct you to Churches and Religious Houses where an hundred instead of four are exposed to adoration. What though the Beam of the Cross did not diminish for the portions cut away, yet which way did the Nails increase? Did one Nail spawn another as big as itself? None is so frontless to defend it. But to cut off further process upon the matter: It is best to bind the Legend how the Cross and the Nails have multiplied into volumes, and believe them together. But the sure way is not to parallel the glorious works of our Master with such Apocryphal fictions. There is a great difference between Juggling and Miracles.

Hitherto touching the Act of his power in producing this admired work, go onward to the next Point, and we shall encounter his goodness. Our Savior did not use to do tricks to show his skill, but that some might be the better for him, therefore his power was joined with Beneficence, Ut potestas non terreat, sed amorem excitet, says St. Austin; That he might not astonish them with his greatness, but endear them with his liberality. Leaf gold is drawn out a great way, and then it is fit for nothing but Ostentation: So the multiplying of the Loaves and Fishes had served barely for the pomp of the eye, but that the wonderful increase thereof concluded in a benefit. And first I note, though the love of Christ to mankind was excessive, strong unto death, yet going in the Tract of reason, they had little cause to look for this at his hands. Alas, he had no home to entertain them, no Revenues wherewith to feast them, no Olive yards or Vineyards to bestow upon them. Could five thousand look for a Supper of his bestowing? For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich, that is, says Nazianzen, he put on the poverty of my wretched flesh, that I might gain the riches of his glorious Divinity. They that followed him had not their wages in Meats and Drinks, in Silver and Gold, but in Sanctity, and Justification, in peace of Conscience, and in the earnest of the Spirit to be heirs of Salvation. And he whose Profession it was to open the Treasures of Heaven to his Disciples, and to possess naught of Earth, no not so much as to set his foot upon, doth he strain himself to give entertainment to so many in the Wilderness? What was this, but to yield as it were to the time, to be beneficial to the Jews in a temporal way, that by all means he might win their love. He had fed their Spirit with the Word of life, and satiated them, one would think, with the promise of eternal Joy and Immortality, if they believed in his name; but he knoweth whereof we are made, he considereth the Worm in our corruptible appetite which is always craving. He remembered that a little in hand goes a great way with them that cannot abide to have all their state in reversion, therefore he distributed unto the necessity of their body, though his Errand for which he came into the world was to be the Saver of Souls, as you would say, he stepped a little out of his own way to bring them into the right way. I cannot but revolve it in my fancy that the Jews were more transported with this courtesy of our Savior's than with all that had preceded. Hereupon they cry out, This is the Messias, this is he that should come into the world, Let us take him up and make him a King. How ignorantly and unequally doth flesh and blood set a price upon the works of God? I durst almost say, that this was one of the least good turns that ever he did them. When a Miracle came off graciously indeed, it had such a tang at the end of it, as Son thy sins be forgiven thee, or This day is Salvation come to thine house. This had no such heavenly adjunct, but was a frank Feast among a promiscuous company, as his rain falls upon the just and unjust. Well, though the grudgings of this disease are become natural to us all, to like the heavenly offices of the Gospel the better if Christ befriend us a little with these corruptible things, yet carnal Companions are most odious to apprice things momentary before coelestial. How much better doth Solomon distinguish? Length of days, meaning endless days, are in his right hand, and in his left hand riches and honor. Wherefore David describes evil affected men, that value earth before heaven, that their right hand is a right hand of iniquity, because they grasp transitory things in their right hand, fixing their chiefest complacency in them, which are favors of much later digress, and to be received in the left. And the same Metaphor is prosecuted in another sacred Song, Cant. ii. 6. His left hand is under my head, and his right hand doth embrace me. Sinistra capiti non praeponitur, sed supponitur, says Bernard. The left hand which bestows Loaves and Fishes must be under our head, not above it, as if it were the top of our desires: but the right hand should compass us about at the very heart. To this Point but a word more. Christ produced this Amplitude of sustenance even out of his penury, when he had nothing, and possessed nothing. Quid facturae sunt ejus divitiae cujus paupertas nos divites fecit? says St. Austin. What great thing will he confer upon us out of the riches of his glory, who made such generons welcome to so many thousands with his poverty?

May this suffice to unfold our Lord's goodness in this distribution with respect to himself, and his own humiliation. Lay the present condition of the people in another balance, to whom he opened his hand of liberality, and you shall find him that faithful Steward, that gives the portion of meat in due season to the Family, Luk. xii. The people were many, thousands of men, beside women and children. These had given diligent attention to Christ's Doctrine from morning to night. It was in the Spring time, much about the Passover, when the body is most lusty, and the appetite most sharp, and yet in all that space none of these, no not so much as they or the weaker Sex, and the tenderer Age, had taken any refection. As the Poet made a fancy of it, that while Orpheus touched his Lute the Deer listened, and had no leisure to drink or graze, Neque amnem libavit quadrupes, nec graminis attig it herbam. So the throng that pressed about Jesus hung at his lips, and hungerd so much for grace, that they forgot the refreshing of nature. The Disciples being not ill advised that faintness and infirmity must ensue upon it, out of instancy and passion command their Lord, send the multitude away, and their Allegations indeed are pitiful, this is a desert place, it affords nothing, these good men and women are unfurnished, and have brought nothing to eat. Dismiss them to seek their Supper in the adjacent Villages, there is no other way, and ten to one such poor Hosteries had nothing in store to entertain them. With their leave, this was counsel, but no charity. If a brother be destitute of food, and one of you say be filled, notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body, what doth it profit? Jam. ii. 16. Yet to purge the Disciples from such luke-warm love, I profess in their behalf, they did to their utmost what they were able. All the commiseration on earth, set God aside, could not just at the nick afford what they wanted; the distress was such, that it did as it were make an out-cry to all the world, Is there any one that can relieve you? I may say it truly without lightness, this was Christ's qu to come in, and no opportunity like it, it is his manner to be most propitious in an extreme plunge, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says Philo, this is proper to God to be strong in weakness, to abound in scarcity, and to be most comfortable in a desperate necessity.

If things feasible or facile were only brought to pass, Infidels would say, Who could not do this? Therefore God doth reserve his power and his rescue for hopeless miseries. And David calls it articulately the time wherein he may be found, Psal. xxxii. 7. As he called out to Abraham to stay his hand in the latest minim of the moment, when there was not an hairs breadth between Isaac and death. As the Israelites were disappointed of Manna till they were weary of their life, and made that dismal moan, Would to God we had died in Egypt. And as Elias had no answer from heaven, nor Ravens to feed him, till he was at the pitch of discontent, It is enough Lord, take away my life, for I am not better than my Fathers. When these immediate natural causes, which work strongest upon our senses, when these fail, and can cast no influence of succor upon our afflictions, then God acts his part alone, and arrests our Faith, and challengeth it to give thanks to nothing but to his Omnipotency. So he preached to Gideon, The people that are with thee are too many for me to give the Midianites into their hands, lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me, Judge. vii. 2. Let them be reduced to three hundred, and their paucity will confess that it is the Sword of the Lord that got the victory. But nothing more proper to illustrate this, than my Theme in hand. Christ could have led this people forth far from a Desert, into a wealthy place where the fields were laden with fruits. This is his usual way, as he made man of the dust of the earth, so to feed him with the fruits of the earth, that she which was our Mother might be our Nurse likewise. But so long as Nature is free and peremptory in this course, we sacrifice to our own seed, and our own labor. Again, he could have staid their appetite, and prevented all hunger and faintness though they had gone away empty from the Wilderness. I would not say it of this people, I know some that would have grown insolent in such a case, upon the merit of their fasting: But best of all that they wanted, and had not till Christ provided them a Table. For lest we should forget God, if we had not special use of him, he hath laid extremities upon us, such as these, to make us remember him. And as his glory doth triumph in helping his Creatures at special need, so it captivates the Soul of man to very moderate contentation, and brings it low like a weaned child. When we wallow in abundance, and have all manner of store at our command, we are so wanton in our choice that the best will not please us; but thrust us into the Desert, where we are begirt with hard necessity, then we grow supple, and indifferent to anything if the Lord will help us. Our Savior need not study to satisfy any man's licorice longing in this extremity of hunger, he found five barley Loaves to break among them, and he made them no better, he did not turn them into sugar-plates, or Marchpane. Wherefore if any man find himself voluptuously transported, let him pray to God that his prosperity may go a little backward, like the Sun upon the Dial of Ahaz; let him wish that he were come to the exigence of some extremity, like the Prodigal, that he were fallen from the honey-comb, to the husk which the Swine eat. The Syrian Paraphrast intended this, I believe, in the Lord's Prayer, when it framed our tongue to supplicate on this wise, Give us this day the bread of our necessity. Now this Point for an upshot shall thus expire. Our soul is in the same plight as their bodies were, that had come a far journey, and continued with our Savior, and had not one fragment of food to content their stomach. So our Soul is straightened, and wants blessedness, it passionately longs to obtain it. This world is a barren Wilderness, there is nothing but grass in the place, and that which fadeth like the flower of grass. We are far from him, as this people was, and we seek a Country in the heavens. What are five Loaves and two Fishes, the poor pittances of Nature, to procure us felicity? Some say, send them to the next Village for succor, to the intercession of Saints and Angels. No sweet Savior, but as the eyes of a servant look unto the hands of his Master, so our soul waits upon thee until thou have mercy upon us.

Nor did our Savior distribute his Largess only to stop the gap of necessity. For had they been runnagates David doth award them to be unpitied, Let them continue in scarceness: but flagrante ptetate, when their hearts were set upon zeal, and their ears attentive by the space of an whole day to hear the Doctrine of the Kingdom of Heaven, then this Miracle falls out as a reward of their Piety. For even as the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , or Feasts of Charity were wont to be celebrated among the Christians in the Primitive Church, immediately after the divine Mysteries had been solemnized: So when these Jews had lent their patience to a good Sermon, I am sure (for never man spake like him, by his enemies confession) the close of it was, that they eat bread together joyfully with singleness of heart. And I do not amiss to say, that this diligence to hear and learn, did attract his love to do this for them; for did they importune him by Prayer? Did any one, among so many, beseech him to show his power, and pity them? no, but they had done enough to open his bowels, though they held their peace: for first seek the Kingdom of Heaven, and the righteousness thereof, and all these things shall be added unto you. Hallow his name, advance his Kingdom, and do his will, and that which follows comes in by course, you cannot fail of your daily bread. In this Assembly that sanctified the whole day in the Desert to wait on Christ, you may imagine there were sundry of them that lived by their sweat and labor from hand to mouth: Will not these be much damnified by their godliness? The night was come, they had earned nothing by their labor; they may go home and starve: yea, nothing less: they that had committed themselves to his providence like the fowls of the air, shall fair as well as the fowls of the air. For the Lions do lack and suffer hunger, but they that fear the Lord do want no good thing, Psal. xxxiv. 10. The Apostles, not long before this accident in my Text, were sent abroad without Scrip, without provision, without change of raiment. Lacked you anything, says our Savior? the Heathen could not say that the Christians were the poorer for not working the seventh day: your Trade is increasing while your shop is shut up on Holidays, if you serve the Lord. Godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come, 1 Tim. iv. 8. We had Brethren in diebus illis, in those noble times, that came near to the Apostles, who durst urge the Lord upon his word, in the face of Infidels, that the soul of the righteous should not famish. In the year 176 Marcus Aurelius was ready to give battle to the Marcomans, but the day was so hot, and the drought so sore, that his Army fainted, and could not strike a stroke. The Christians that served under him, to show the glory of their great Master Jesus, the Son of God, joined their Prayers together, and instantly obtained so much rain as refreshed all the Roman Legions, and so much thunder as consumed the Marcomans with fire and lightening. I make not the Doctors of the Church my Authors for it, but Dion Cassius, an Heathen, confesseth the accident, and Xiphiline, another of the same, ascribes it to the Christians: and that Legion which consisted of Christians was called from hence 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the thundering Legion, long after. The blessings of the Lord they are not viscata beneficia, they do not hang in his fingers like birdlime, when his Children need them, but they drop like an Honeycomb, without straining.

But men are so apt to object against this, as if they stretched their wits to make God a liar: they will tell you that they have known and heard of righteous men that have been forsaken and destitute. Digito terebrare Salinum contentus perages, si cum Jove vivere tentas; Poverty ever was and will be the obloquy of honesty: Neither is bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill, Eccles. ix. 11. Well the knot is soon untied, if you do not over-reckon with God, and extend his word to a greater proportion of temporal blessings than he hath promised. There is a Son that grudged at his Father, Luke xv. quia nusquam haedum dedisset, he had never given him a Kid to make merry with his friends. Must everyone that is a Son look for a Kid, and for enough wherewith he may be merry and voluptuous? no, no, if you have pabulum & latibulum, anything to stay hunger, and a Cave to put your head in, God is not in your debt, and you may do as well as they that have the Kid; for life is oftener lost by surfeiting than by starving. Every Levite that serves faithfully at the Altar must not think to wear a Mitre like Aaron, as St. Jerome speaks of Praetextatus that would be baptized, and become a Christian, if he might be Bishop of Rome. All men must not look to be requited like Valentinian; that refused the Tribune-ship of Julian upon condition of Idolatry, and became an Emperor: They that gape for so much, tenter God's promise to the stretch of their own greediness. First, They seek dominion, and wealth, and think the Kingdom of Heaven will come into the vantage. Miserable souls, that do not fear lest their dignity should be their total recompense, and all that ever they shall have for their service. They that put themselves upon God's providence, as these men did in the Desert, they shall not want: but remember then that they must accept of barley loaves for current payment. Peter and John had neither silver nor gold, yet they had food and raiment, and for the most part the most fortunate are they that be no such Camels, but they may pass through the eye of the needle.

I will work out of the point but this little more; these five hundred men that waited upon Christ had kept their Fast to the full Canonical time, they had eat nothing, until night, therefore he distributes the loaves, dissolves their fast, and would not suffer them to continue it any longer than might do them good. A man in the fervor of his desire will pursue that he desires so hard, as he will quite forget his meat: so Esau felt no hunger when he was in the chase a hunting; but as soon as that was over he longed for meat upon any terms: so during the whole day that our Savior preached, the time was so well taken up, that they minded not the emptiness of their body, so their ears were filled: but when these raptures were over, the tortures of hunger must needs ensue; then our Lord supplies them with a moderate refreshment, to teach us, that religious Fasting should be used as the friend of Grace, and not as the foe of Nature. Many have put themselves to the pain of long abstinence to subdue their carnal desires. Palladius and some legendary Authors will give you the report of some that took no sustenance for three whole months, and forty days: I had rather believe such an Author as Hippocrites in this subject, he says, Where natural heat is weak, and phlegm abounds, upon which the heat may spend its force, a sick man may continue long and eat nothing; but such as are of sound health cannot preserve life above seven days without meat: therefore St. Austin keeping himself to the modesty of truth, tells it with admiration, that some mortified Christians would taste neither meats nor drinks for three days. Yea, this is credible: but the Church, which would not over-lay man's weakness with severity, did never in her Canons prorogue a Fast longer than the Evening of one day, adding, that the Supper should be frugal and without all delicacy: so in my Text, here was an abstinence kept for an whole day, then followed after St. Jerome's Phrase, Cibus vilis & vespertinus, a crust of a barley loaf, and a little fish. Whether the worship of God may consist in Fasting, taken single by itself, I dispute it not: all will agree that it is medium cultus, a good disposition to God's service, because it removes the impediments. Now mark how our Savior limited this Fast, and take heed of excessive macerations: Make not that which is ordained for the Handmaid, to be the hinderer of devotion: fasting doth as it were bring the Bow to ejaculate prayer with the greater force; now, that Fast is frustrate of the due end, which brings such infirmity upon the body, that it is unfit for prayer. The Church therefore hath always provided, like a tender Mother, so to circumscribe the strictest Fast, that no man should put his life to hazard, nor his health to prejudice: and he that shortens his days by such immoderate penance, is as much to be blamed, as if he would offer a Sacrifice, and play the thief to compass it. It is St. Jerome's similitude, and this to boot, in an Epistle to Laeta, whom he chid for that fault; Experientia didici assellum cum in via fessus fuerit diverticula quaerere; the body over-pined with fasting, is the Ass that being tired too much will never keep the high-way, but turn aside into every Lane and Corner. To dispatch this, for I think we need not a Bridie in this kind, I would we did, Major, the School-man, could say, that we were never such scrupulous fasters in this Island, as in the neighbor Kingdoms; but for the truths sake, the sum is, Fasting is not to be preferred before Charity, and it must be proportioned, that it may not stiffen our devotion, but make it more limber for Prayer and Piety.

And so far, that this distribution of our Lord came from his manifold goodness with respect to the convenience of time. The same goodness takes us along into a fresh consideration, respecting his Instruments by whom he wrought, he distributed to his Disciples. A Feast, where there were five thousand Guests, could not be served without many waiters, and loe the Twelve were 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , those diligent Ministers that did the office for them all; or you may say it doth very much resemble a Maundy, and the Apostles were the Maundy-men. And because the time will not suffer me to insist long upon it, I will give you the substance of it in short particulars.

First, The latest motion that came from the Disciples was an hearty good wishing to this poor people: Sir, send them away, and let them go to the Villages; as who should say, I would they were in some courteous place where they might rest, and be refreshed. There was brotherly affection in this charitable wish of theirs, and behold Christ promotes it to bring forth fruits, and turns their Optative Mood into a Potential; as who should say, do you moan their necessity, and long to see them better provided for? It is well done, go your ways, and with your own hands deliver them as much as shall suffice them. There was none of the holy Race that did so much bewail the oppression of the Israelites in Egypt as Moses did, many time his mind did run upon it when he kept the Flocks of Jethro, instantly God made his vows and wishes grow up into a solid substance; Come, says the Lord, I will send thee unto Pharaoh, and thou shalt bring forth my people out of Egypt. If you see anything that wants the blessing of the Lord to help it, or reform it, at the least send forth the desires of your soul for a gracious time to mend it, and you know not whether God will give your own arm ability to effect it.

Secondly, See what Christ hath done, miraculi gloriam quasi à se in Apostolos transtulit, he made his Disciples sharers with him in this Miracle; which was more than the most ambitious among them did ever ask; for it was not so much to sit at his right hand and at his left in an earthly Kingdom, as to be partners with him in such a grand exploit, which was wrought by the puissant finger of his Diety: But, which is most of all, Christ did as it were convey the glory of this Miracle from himself to his Disciples; what he did himself was not before the eyes of the Company, the Twelve received all, and gave all to the People. Why, what if they had got all the honor by it? be it so, if it happened so, he had lost that which he never sought for, the praise of men. They that love to have their memory feather'd with applause and fame, will rather entitle themselves to other men's beneficence, and rather encroach upon the glory of other men's deserts, than part with their own: as the gibe went upon a Roman, Vide quam liberalis fit qui non sua solum, sed etiam aliena largiatur. But when the Holy Spirit is in that plenty as to work a Miracle, nothing that the Actor doth will ever smell of boasting or popularity. Elisha would neither receive from Naaman's Purse, nor from his Praise; would not come before him to be known by face, but sent him word by a Deputy, what he should do to be healed. But still take Christ for an Example rather than any Prophet, he restored a sick man to health, and he that was healed wist not who it was, for Jesus had conveyed himself away, Joh. v. 13. He did not this work in the light to be seen, because he would not be haunted with the shadow of glory.

Thirdly, He distributed to the Disciples, and assumed them into the same works which himself did, save only in the work of our Redemption: but when he was acting that part, either they fell asleep, or run away, as when he was laid hold upon to be crucified: it was an exploit above a mortal man to assist it, and would admit of no associate, I have trodden the Wine-press alone, and of the people there was none with me, Isa. lxiii. 3. But the power of doing Miracles was communicated unto them for the edifying of the body of the Saints, and that before a great Congregation, where there were many witnesses, that there was such virtue given to men; as if Christ had said before them all, these are they that shall work signs and wonders in my Name, when I am gone to Heaven. These are they indeed, but to do such mighty things was an Heritage which they could bequeath again to their Sons, and to their Sons Sons in all descending Generations. As a Conqueror enters, it may be, in triumph into a City which he hath taken, but when the Solemnity of the triumph is over, a plain working-day fashion serves for after: so the Gospel entered with triumph into the World by the power and pomp of Miracles, overtopping all false Religions, and captivating all imaginations; but would you have Christianity to hold on its triumph when it hath vanquished both Judaism and Idolatry 1600 years ago? Not so, but as there is a time to every purpose under Heaven, so there was a time to glorify God by Signs and Wonders, and a time to believe though Signs are ceased. But now was the season to communicate some share of that mighty virtue to the Apostles, as well to prepare them to know their office, as to prepare the People to know that those were the Dispensers of the Mysteries of God.

Lastly, the Disciples received the Blessing immediately from Christ, and they went between Him and the People to feed them with bread, to teach us, that it is for his Saints sake that the earth hath plenty of all things. It was not unto them which murmured that God gave water of the rock, but unto Moses that cried unto him. It was to Elias that God gave rain after three years drought, and not unto Ahab. Forget not therefore which way all temporal Blessings come about. There are holy and mortified men among us that spend the greatest part of their life in penance and devotion, these make intercession for you that your Table may be furnished, and though they do not give it you with their hand, as the Disciples did in our present business, they give it you with their Prayers: when others revel it, and waste their stock in vanity, these grovel upon the earth with their bended knees, that the Lord would not be angry. As St. Austin said to such a purpose, Quando ipsi laetantur nos pro illis gemimus; when others pamper their genius with marrow and fatness, these do macerate themselves with abstinence to avert famine from the Land. A devout man whose zeal is free from faction, and his heart clear from malice, that drives not his private prosperity, but every day spends some Canonical hours most strictly for public blessings, it may be hath nothing himself, and yet procures all; as the Apostles took bread from Christ not for themselves, but to give away to the multitude, or if some little came to their share they enjoyed it not without the envy of those that were the better for their benefit. For when they had distributed their Masters Maundy once and again to so many folk, yet they grudged them that which a Nest of Sparrows would make bold with, when they plucked a few ears of corn, and rubbed them in their hands. Well, the World will never reform this ingratitude, and yet the Lord doth not repent him that his Saints are so precious in his sight, that they obtain riches, health, and peace for those that hate them and persecute them. Such a poor Widow as Anna that continued in Prayers and Fastings day and night in the Temple, in part Caesar did owe the prosperity of his Crown unto her, the People were beholding to her that they had their Traffick, the Priests that they had the exercise of their Religion, they of the City that they had their health, they of the Country that they had their Harvest. May be there were Blasphemers, Extortioners, Adulterers that were filled with this Feast which Christ made: so it shall be while good and bad are intermingled everywhere. But do you mark it, Christ committed the bread at the first breaking to the hands of the Disciples, for faithful and good men are the Conduit-pipes of all the Blessings which the earth receiveth from the Father of mercies: to whom be glory for evermore. AMEN.

THE THIRD SERMON UPON

JOHN vi. 11.

He distributed to the Disciples, and the Disciples to them that were set down, and likewise of the Fishes as much as they would.

I T will not be denied, but, if I share this Miracle between those that had their finger in it, two parts, to speak with the least, must be given to Christ. If therefore there be double as much in Christ's act, that be distributed to the Disciples, as there is in their act, who distributed to them that were set down, it was as due required to put the Bucket twice into the Well to draw waters from the former, and with half that labor, uno pede stance, that is, at this once and no more, to dispatch the latter. And now I shall put it unto you, that this Miracle is come down as low as it could descend. The divine incomprehensible nature was the Origen of it, and therefore Christ used that Ceremony when he took the Loaves into his hand to look up to heaven. Our Savior's Human Nature was the next Vessel into which the grace of the Almighty was poured, for the Father had given all things into his hand, Joh. xiii. 3. The next, and underneath his feet were the Apostles, they had their Power and Commission from him, As the Father sent me, so send I you, Joh. xx. The last of all to whom the Apostles communicate their gift are the People, and there the gift abides. The Dove, that is, the Holy Spirit, doth use to fetch this compass about before he lights. O glorious Hierarchy! O most beautiful degrees of strength and Majesty! O golden Chain, whose uppermost Link is fastened to the highest heaven, and the nethermost part toucheth the lowest earth! Thus doth our blessedness descend step by step, from the Father to the Son, from the Son to the Disciples, and from the Disciples to all those that are nourished with the words of Truth, and of good Doctrine, 1 Tim. iv. 6. So then we hold of God as the Author of all Grace, of Christ as the head of the Body, which is his Church, of the Apostles and their Successors as his subordinate Ministers. And aptly do the Fathers make that of David comprehend this whole mystery, Psal. civ. 13. He watereth the hills from above, and the earth is filled with the fruit of thy works.

Having declared with much facility by what degrees this Miracle descended, it was to let you know, that I am come to the last stair, and draw out now from the lowest vent, and that in these two parts, the sub-distribution, and the reception. Or if you will take the Points rather in the concrete, they are those of the last order of givers, the Disciples, and their correlative the receivers, the discumbentes, they that sat down. The former, namely, the Disciples, shall be considered two ways; Either according to the extraordinary power of God upon them, whereby the bread and fish did multiply in their hands likewise, as it had done in our Savior's: Or according the ordinary dispensation of grace, wherein you may look upon them two ways: As boni viri, and boni pastores; first, as good men that gave liberally of what they had; Secondly, as good Pastors that fed the Flock over which they were appointed. Then the Receivers for whom this Table was provided, the Discumbentes, the Miracle gains honor out of them in two respects, in multi, and multum: 1. How many did partake, five thousands, beside women and children. 2. How much they had, even as much as they would. And though that be wonderful, yet that is a Meiosis, and modestly set down, if we scan the truth, for they had more than they could spend.

Now I make my entrance to the Points of Doctrine, and at this I begin, that as Christ had distributed to the Disciples, so they did the same office to them that were set down. A main consideration, and perhaps the very first thing in Christ's intention; for when a motion was made that he would conclude his Sermon, and send the People home; no, says he, Give ye them to eat. Therefore his purpose was that their hands should expedite the Miracle, and they should distribute. And yet the Vulgar Latin, which is held by the Romanists to be the Paragon of Translations, makes no mention at all of the Disciples in my Text, that either Christ gave to them, or that they did give to others. It is not in their Copy, and it is never like to be: For once ill with them, and you may be sure it shall never be better. See what a misery it is to challenge unto anything, wherein man's labors or passions have an interest, that it is absolute and inculpable, for though it be never so much depraved, it shall never be mended. They fly at us for leaving Apocryphal Scripture out of the Canon, we have more cause to jerk at them for leaving Canonical Scripture more than once out of the Gospel. But not to lose myself in their negligence, we have the warrant of all ancient Greek Copies that the Loaves and Fishes were in the Disciples hands after they had been in Christ's. Nay, we have good authority to countenance it, that they multiplied in the Disciples hands after they had multiplied in Christ's. It would have been a double labor, and a wearisome delay to the People, if the Apostles had awaited till Christ had made it out into five thousand parts, and then the Apostles to have fetched those portions, and have served them one by one to the multitude, this would have took up the better part of an whole day to dispatch it. But there was a nearer cut than so, that the time might not be tedious, and the Miracle more illustrious, after Christ had blessed the bread it began to grow in his hands, and as the Disciples plucked away from it to give to them that were set down it grew the faster: Subrepunt in frangentium manibus quaedam fragmentorum procreationes. The Disciples were not only eye-witnesses, but they did also feel the virtue of the Lord. As a Spunge being crushed up in the fist will dilate itself when the hand is open, so the Bread which they held did rise up to a prodigious quantity, they felt it wax and grow greater, that which could be held between two fingers at first, was so big in two moments that they could not hold it in their Palm. Euthymius says, it did not only multiply in their hands, but it retained that virtue when they put up the remainder in their baskets, Ut sicut manus itae humeros testes haberent hujus miraculi, that as their eyes had seen, and their hands had handled, so their very shoulders might feel the weight of the power of God. I am sure that which came to their share in the process of this work was so notorious and palpable, that the place where it was brought to pass carries their name to this day, for that spot of the ground where the Feast was kept, being in the Tribe of Naphtali, over against Bethsaida, is called by the Inhabitants of the Holy Land at this time Apostolorum Mensa, not Christ's, but the Apostles Table, says Adricomius.

I must go further, and fall into a comparison, which I will qualify by and by; the Loaves and Fishes increased more in the Disciples hands than they had done in Christ's, because it lay upon their Function and service to deal them unto more. St. Chrysostom had such an intentive eye to the success which their labor had, that he writes as if he thought there was no increase of the bread till they broke it before the people. I will not take his part in that opinion, but that it shall up to the increase of thirty fold in Christ's hand, and to an hundred fold in theirs, or to some such proportion, I submit my suffrage to that conjecture; But is not this a Paradox? Was it ever seen that the borrowed light was clearer than the natural? That the Pitcher held more than the Well? That the Disciple was above his Master? This Objection is soon pressed under, if we keep the rule of faith which St. Peter preached to the Jews, Acts iii. 12. Ye men of Israel why marvel ye at this? Or why look ye so earnestly on us, as if we by our own power and holiness had brought this to pass? They did it not of themselves, but in 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , as the other great Apostle says, in the person of Christ, 2 Cor. ii. An honorable man may array his Page in richer clothing than he wears himself. The Lord loseth no reverence by this from them that are wise. Though the Servant exceed in bravery, yet it is at the Masters cost, and he exceeds in authority: So Christ put his blessing upon the bread, and his Spirit upon the Apostles, with his assistance he let them superabound, and as it were go beyond himself, but the glory returns to the Fountain, for they that cannot add one Cubit to their stature cannot add one crumb to a Loaf, but that they plowed with his Heifer. Nay, but what if perverse men should mistake hereupon, and not discern the Apostle from him that sent him? What if the Lycaonians are so ravished with the actions of such Instruments, that they acknowledge no God but Barnabas, and bring forth Sacrifice to offer unto Paul, and not to Christ? Why▪ there is no remedy against willful blindness. There is a beam as big as the whole • arth in their eye, that will look about them, and not above them. Choose you whether you will be dazzled with that virtue which our Savior hath given to his holy Servants, but this is the tenure of their Commission. Joh. xiv. 12. He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do. That is multiply Loaves and Fishes as I have done, and multiply them more than I have done. Are you scandalized at this? Truly, I confess it is a word of no easy digestion, that any Saint or friend of God should do greater works. Majora? If Christ had not said it, who could have heard it with patient ears? He doth not mean the works of the Law: for no man ever did the like, because none but the unspotted Son of God fulfilled the Law. He doth not mean the works of Redemption and Salvation, they were so proper to his own person, as the Angels were not good enough to have any fellowship in them. He means his Miracles most certain, they were called works and none but they by the popular estimation. For without them all that had been done beside to their palates, had been impertinency or idleness. But how shall we measure one by another, that greater Miracles were brought forth, than those which he effected? Well enough, says St. Austin. For was it not more for the sick to be cured by the shadow of Peter passing by, than by touching the hem of our Savior's Garment? And again, our Lord did cure diseases by speaking the word, and laying on his hand, yet the world was more amazed that evil Spirits were cast out of the Possessed, if but an handkerchief was applied, which was brought from the body of Paul. And another Father, it is St. Jerome, puts it home, that mightier things should be brought to pass at this day than ever were seen since the Creation, if there were any just cause to declare the glory of God by such wonders. If you say, where is the promise that a Fig-tree should wither away, and a Mountain be removed into the Sea when a strong Believer should say the word? Did any Apostle or Martyr make trial and accomplish it? Nevertheless, says the Author, the Promise is in force, and if there were just occasion to pray unto the Father it should be executed. Such things are not unproduced, as it were upon emulation, because the story of Christ, you may think, hath nothing to parallel such vast Miracles. When the hour shall come to glorify the Gospel, such works shall be brought to pass which are apted for that end, perhaps less, perhaps greater than in former Ages. Finally, if it should be brought to pass at this day, that twenty thousands were fed with one Loafe, you should not say true if you affirmed it were a greater Miracle than Christ did, for Jesus Christ yesterday and today is the Author of that very Miracle. So Theophylact hath a subtle note upon that Text of St. John, that Christ did not say, He that believes shall do greater things than I; How was that? Not of themselves possible, when they did nothing of themselves but by him and his Spirit; but thus, they shall do greater things than these, viz. when I assist them, and they pray unto the Father.

So let us honor God in his Saints as that we rob not the Lord of his honor. When he that is mighty hath magnified his Servants to do great things, give unto the external cause all moral veneration, but give unto the supernal cause all religious adoration. None did distinguish upon this with a more singular dexterity, and unanimity than these five thousand that were fed so marvelously in the Wilderness. What they received was from the Disciples, and from none beside; and that which they received if it swelled miraculously in Christ's hand, it exceeded much more in the hands of the Disciples, and yet the People were so prudent in taking the right way, that they baulked the Disciples, and glorified Jesus, they found out the Founder, and discerned him from his Instruments. As it is a Proverb in Nazianzen, Vestem consuit Istiaeus, caeterum induit Aristagoras; Istiaeus made the Coat, Aristagoras did but wear the Coat: So Christ made the Miracle, the Apostles were no more than the representers, or the publishers of the Miracle. This was espied not by one or two, but by the whole Assembly that had met in the Desert, and they pick out Christ from the herd of the Disciples, him they proclaim to be the Prophet that should come into the world; they worship him; they design him to be their King, and nothing that appears was devised to gratify the Disciples, for they were not the primary Agents in whom supernatural power was immanent and habitual, but Balislae Spiritus Sancti, the Engines of the Holy Ghost, that uttered forth such virtue as they received by his infusion. As the gift of Prophesy is not born with the soul, but comes by inspiration; Or as the Peripatetics say, that the Intelligences assist the Orbs of heaven, and move them about, but they do not move by a soul that informs them: So it was not a native and ingenite quality which the Worthies of the Primitive Church had to speak with Tongues, and to effect Wonders, but an adventicious virtue, according to the pleasure of him that distributes where he pleaseth. In Christ the power is absolute, home-born, undependent, in his Ministers it was but borrowed, derivative, dependent; in him that was the brightness of his Fathers glory it is original and essential, in his Servants it is gratuitous and accidental: in him it is without measure and infinite, in theirs it is limited and finite. Far be it from us then to think that it gave the Disciples any precedency, no nor equality, no nor the least degree of comparison with their Master, because when they distributed to them that sat down the Loaves increased in their hands more abundantly than they did in Christ's.

I am now past the first Point, the extraordinary grace that descended upon the Disciples, but we that would walk in their steps according to the ordinary grace of God, shall make more use to look upon them as boni viri, and boni Pastores: First, As good men that gave liberally as God enabled them. And the former grace would bear no price at all if it wanted this. Though I have all faith, so that I could remove Mountains, and have no charity, I am nothing; but with this it makes a propitious conjunction. As fast as Christ gave unto them, they gave unto those that were in need. Tu vade & fac similiter. There is a semplar how such as have great heaps should disperse them. It had been a churlish and an envious act in the Disciples, if when lump upon lump succeeded in their clutch they had piled it all up in their own baskets, and reserved it for their own belly, most ridiculous you will say, they could never consume it. Believe it, their Parsimony is no less odious that gather, and purchase, and fill their Treasures without all Christian communication; nay, without remorse of humanity to them that are oppressed. If the poor are hungry and naked it is not God's fault, the Rich have enough for all, and if it stick in the Misers hands, as the Stone stops the passage of the Urine in the bladder, let him take heed of the torments to come by that similitude. It is worthy to be attentively heeded, that it being our Savior's purpose to give his Apostles exact breeding in all works of Piety, he did steal into them this wholesome Lesson, while their minds were exalted in doing Miracles, to do good and to impart out of all the substance that was poured upon them. It hath all the conditions of a good Alms so absolute, as it were in a figure, as it may well sway with the conscience as much as any Precept. It was performed cheerfully, without excuse, without grudging, Judas was not so bad at this time to oppose it with Quorsum perditio haec? To what end is this waste? 2. It was distributed with a frank and a generous hand till everyone had as much as they would. 3. It came before it was asked, Non expectat petentem, sed praeoccupat. 4. They were not such as did distrust that their store did spend too fast, for it was verified in them, that their left hand knew not what their right hand did. 5. It came to pass that they had a gracious reward in eodem genere, for when they had dispatched their Dole, and had left to give, they had more remaining than when they began to give, that is the use that our Church hath collected out of this Miracle in the Collect before the Gospel, That we plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may be plenteously rewarded. Gaudeat indigens de dato tuo, ut gaudias de dato Dei, it is St. Austin. Let the needy be comforted with that which you give, and you shall be more comforted with that which God gives. The Lord did bless all the store of his people Israel, and put much into their hands that they might send to the poor, Deut. xv. 9. The abundance of Corinth is indebted to help the want of Macedonia, 2 Cor. viii. The Christians of Antioch no sooner heard that there would be a great famine in the days of Claudius but presently they sent aid to the Brethren in Judea, among whom, says Orosius, most memorable was the bounty of Helena, Queen of the Adiabeni. Nay, the very Ravens, what God did put into their mouths they brought it to Elias: if the Prophet had lived among the Rooks and Ravens of these days, they would rather have taken all away than have brought him anything. But the Instruments which obey God, not only rational, but sensible, insensible are all for distribution, as for the proper use of their creation: He made the Sun to give light, the Fire to give heat, the Water to quench thirst, the Sea to give fish, the Earth to give fodder, the Cattle to give milk and wool; and surely think you that he hath made any man so un-uniform to all his Creatures, that he should take and gather, and give nothing? Artaxerxes Longimanus plaid upon his own infirmity, that he was born with the right hand longer than the left, that his right hand, which was fair and large, might give magnificently, and that his left hand, which was short and shrunk up, might receive but sparingly. What he inferred out of the infirmity of his natural birth, may better be applied to every of us out of the sanctity of our regeneration. But Artaxerxes, though an Heathen, yet he had moral justice in him: What say you to Julian, the most profligate of Idolaters, yet you shall hear as good a passage from him: he was desirous to transplant-some of the best and most plausible Virtues of the Christians into the stock of the Pagans, and he wrote a Letter to one Arsacius the chief Pontif of the Superstition of the Gentiles, to borrow three things from the practice of the Christians. 1. To sing sweet Hymns and Psalms when they assembled together as we did. 2. To appoint some Canonical Penances for Delinquents, as we had. 3. To provide for the sick, the decayed, and such as were in misery, in Hospitals, and Mansions of charity; for, says he, I blush that they should provide for their own Poor and for ours, and we are not compassionate to help our own.

Well might Julian smell the sweet odour of the Christians charity, but he and his could never imitate it. It is not Philosophy on which he doated, but Faith, which he had renounced, that teacheth us to love God and our Neighbor with our own detriment, which instructs us to wash away our sins with tears, to wipe them with alms, and to dry them up with fasting. Julian and his Sectaries had the Vein seared up which should open to give alms, because they did not believe in the reward to come. The reversion of an hundred fold for that which is given in this life, is that which visits Prisoners, redeems Captives. For if the Heathen, as Pliny says, canonized Tyrants that were bountiful, and made them God's, will not the Lord do glorious things for his Servants in that Title, and make them Denizens with the Angels? But would you drink of the Brook in the way, and not await so long for the futurition of a recompense? Why, look into the business we have in hand, Quanto plura dederis, tanto plura largius confluent; the more the Disciples distributed to them that were set down, the more they had to distribute; they spent so well, that they fared the better, and abounded. Avaro semper aliquid deest, a pinching sordid wretch is always whining, and somewhat he wants that he would have; for the Soul is of that capaciousness, that it is made to receive God, and not this World, capacem Dei quicquid Deo minus est non implebit, says Bernard very well, nothing which is infinitely less than God, can fill that which is capable of God. Therefore a griping Chremes must needs be indigent, whereas he that is merciful and free-handed shall have sufficient to content him for the present, and a portion to spare for the time to come. Some Monks that are good at telling Tales have jobb'd in an odd Story upon the occasion of my Text, that Pope Hadrian the Second brought out forty pieces of silver to give to so many poor that were at his Gate, and when he had dealt to everyone to a penny, there were more remaining in his hand than he had taken out of his Coffers. Yes, if the old man were not purblind, and knew not what he took out, I accept their good will that relate it: somewhat they have imagined like to this success, of eternal memory, touching the five Loaves and two Fishes; while the owners possessed it to themselves it was but a handful, when they fed the hungry with it, they found themselves Masters of God's plenty. Says Solomon, There is that scattereth, and that increaseth; that's consonant to my Text: and there is that holdeth more than is meet, and it tendeth to poverty, Prov. xi. 26. This is a riddle to Unbelievers, that bounty should make them rich; and yet an Heathen confessed it in that saying, Haec habeo quaecunque dedi, and that Parsimony should make them poor, and yet a thousand examples confirm this, where the blessing of the Lord hath subducted itself from the niggard. One instance is as much as a Volume, which Eusebius hath in the life of Constantine. Ablaevius was a principal Officer both in the Palace, and in the Army, everywhere much esteemed by the Emperor, his main fault was, he had amassed up an infinite treasure, craved perpetually; and lived most sparingly; upon a time as he pressed his Master the Emperor to obtain a suit that would bring in no small sum, Constantine with a Spear in his hand drew the proportion of Ablavius his body upon the ground, and, says he, When I have given thee all I can, this is all that thou shalt have at last, if thou gettest so much. That if was a Prophetical word, and there was a Divine sentence in the lips of the King, as Solomon says, for at last Ablavius was torn in pieces by the rude multitude, and not an handful of his body was left to be buried in a Sepulcher. The sum is, the state of him that is gripple and cruel will be improsperous to himself, much more to his Posterity. But as alms and charity thrived extremely with the Disciples, so it shall be with all those that remember the afflictions of Joseph, and the Sun of comfort will shine upon those clouds above, that drop their fatness upon the earth beneath.

And I am yet within the compass of the first part of my Text, till I have delivered unto you, not only what the Disciples did as good men, but also as good Pastors, they distributed unto them that were set down, that is, they fed the Flock which was committed unto them, to feed the hungry, to see that the fatherless and Widow have sustenance is an Ecclesiastical care; I, an Episcopal duty in no small degree. The Apostles, though they gave themselves wholly to prayer, and to the Ministry of the Word, yet they took order how the poor should be relieved, Act. vi. But it is a greater matter that this Miracle points unto, not so much how the hunger of the body should be refreshed with charity, as how the soul should be fed with the Word of Life. So the ancient Doctors do commonly allude to those words which were the Introduction to this great work, Give ye them to eat, that our Savior appointed the Twelve to sow the seeds of wholesome Doctrine among the people, that there might not be a famine of the Word, but to give them meat that endureth to everlasting life. And in all likelihood this is the true cause why Christ, when he had blessed the bread, gave it over unto them to part it to the Assembly, to show that a Disciple is magnus animarum oeconomus, as Nazianzen said of Athanasius, his Lord's Steward, to provide for souls; nay, that one man should be as it were a God unto another, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a terrestrial God to bring him salvation. To the conveyance of divers benefits God hath called to himself divers Instruments, and joined them by a great condescension of his glory as Partners to himself, as our Parents in the work of our bringing forth, our Teachers in our training up, Kings and Magistrates in the preservation of our lives and peace, but the Ministers of his Word and Sacraments for the erudition of our souls. The Omnipotent needs no such assistants as we are: What is Man who could not keep the possession of a pleasant Garden upon earth, that he should procure a celestial Paradise for the remnant that shall be saved? And yet that we may be disciplined in the way of eternal life by such means as are familiar and connatural to our own infirmities, we are laborers together with God, 1 Cor. iii. 9. Reason is a strong adversary against this, and will say that it is too excellent a function for one that consists both of clay and sin, to preach the Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. What! would you have the Lord to speak out of the clouds with his own voice? O you know not what you ask; you that shrink at the roaring of thunder, would run into the dust for fear of his Majesty, if he should speak. The Cherubims and Seraphim can scarce endure it, but they hide their faces when they hear the Trumpet of his glory. An Army of five hundred thousand men interceded with Moses; Speak thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speak with us lest we die. Well, if his Majesty make him too awful to be the Prolocutor of his Word and Testimonies, yet would not the Angels be far better Ambassadors than Men to deliver the things pertaining to faith and godliness? no, nor they so fit: For first Satan cannot now revile God's justice, that he is not repulsed upon equal terms; as he overcame, so is he vanquished again: Us he tempted to disobedience, and we are the mouth of the Lord to teach repentance and obedience. Secondly, better to have a Priest taken out among men, than among Angels; for men are compassed with infirmity, and can have compassion of the ignorant, and of them that are out of the way. Thirdly, since Christ took our flesh to make our Atonement with God in this nature, this nature is the fittest to continue the working of that grace unto the end of the World. This is ratified by an instance not to be controlled, Act. x. An Angel comforts Cornelius, that his Prayers and Alms were remembered before God, meddles no further, but transmits him to the holy Priesthood of the Church. Send to Joppa for one Simon, he shall speak words whereby thou and thy household shall be saved. The upshot is, our Savior could have finished this Miracle without Coadjutors, and have given the portions of bread to the hungry with his own hands, but to teach us, that such as he delivers his Commission unto (at no hand any others) that they shall intercur in sacred Offices between him and his People; The Disciples distributed to them that were set down.

And these were faithful Stewards that kept nothing back, freely they received, and freely they gave. They were taught in this Negotiation what manner of Teachers they should be: First, To be diligent in their Apostleship, that all that were commended to their cure should be sufficiently provided for, and have enough. Nay, though immoderate replenishing be naught for the Spirit as well as for the body, yet let them abound rather than want: and though 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 that which is unseasonable is unreasonable, yet he shall make a better account before God that hath dropt somewhat out of season by affected supererogation, than he that hath done too little in season, and hath neglected the gift which was given him by imposition of hands. Alexander, the Predecessor of St. Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, returning to Alexandria after the Nicene Council was dissolved, was so much a Pulpit man, that for a long space he would suffer no man to preach in that great City but himself, lest the Faith concluded lately at Nice should be mistaken by any other Doctor. I think I may say he took too much upon him, yet certainly it was a fault on the better hand. It pleased our Savior that his Disciples should feed their Guests rather with superfluity than scarcity. Another Parable gives them a character that they were nummularii, those that put God's Talents to the money-changers, that he might receive his own with Usury, not as if Usurers were countenanced by the similitude, but because as that gain is boundless, so we should drive God's trade extensively, indefinitely, without pause, without measure, and increase upon increase will require labor upon labor. Says Gregory, the old Law required of a brother that survived to marry his Relict, and to raise up seed unto the Brother that died without issue. The Apostles, and such as have taken the like Office upon them by their Ordination, are the Brethren of our Lord, he calls them so himself; our Lord departed as it were without issue, because they were very few that believed in him when he ascended into heaven. The Law therefore calls upon his Brethren to raise up Sons and Daughters unto him. And though his heavenly Off-spring be grown innumerous at this day, yet his Brethren are tied in as great conscience as ever before to tend the increase, because the Church is not yet called, at least the number of the Elect is not yet accomplished; and if you would eat bread yourselves in the kingdom of heaven, distribute what ye have received, that the people may eat.

I say what ye have received, for beside diligence there must be sincerity. The Disciples set of no other before the multitude but that which Christ brake, Sic ea tantùm proponamus Ecclesiis que Christus praecepit. So propound nothing but that which Christ taught, and speak with no other tongue but as the Spirit gives you utterance, and thou shalt save thyself and others: But if you shall shred the wild Gourds of your own gathering, with that which grows in God's Garden, the Children of the Prophets will cry out, O thou man of God there is death in the pot. Men that obtrude their own Traditions upon the Church, are they aware of their high presumption? The Prince of the evil Angels went no further, Then I will be like the most high, and he that says my truth is no less Orthodox than that which is written in the Prophets and Evangelists, what difference is there between him and Lucifer? Are they aware of the consequent of their new Doctrine that it creeps like a Gangrene, and hath such a contagious quality to infect that which was sound, that the truth which once they professed will be quite stained with innovation? Or are they sensible of the threatenings of God? Rev. xxii. 18. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the Plagues that are written in this book. It is unspeakable to say what a storm a man raiseth to toss the whole world in, that invents a new Article of faith, or enforceth the consent of Christians to that which is not indubiously the Word of God. Be very choice to examine what it is with which you feed Christ's Lambs, and see that you take it out of Christ's own hand, I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, says St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 23. And so Lyrinensis, a judicious exploder of all novelties, id est proprium Christianae modestiae, non sua posteris tradere, sed à majoribus accepta servare. It is a token of Christian modesty, not to vent what we broach out of our own brain, but to keep that which was committed of old.

One thing will cast me back a little before I conclude this Point. Shall we look upon the Twelve feeding the multitude with the Loaves and Fishes in the capacity of good Pastors? Then belike we must take Judas into the number. Yes, says Chrysostom, Et ill habuit suum cophinum inter reliquos; he took up a basket full of that which remained as well as his fellows. And as long as he fed the People with the same which he had from Christ, it was not to be despised because it came from him. Let men be as they will be, the sin of man shall not make the power of God to be of none effect. It troubles not us therefore that Judas was one that distributed, as well as Peter, let it trouble them who think their sacred things are all marred or disappointed if the Priest be in a mortal sin. An Hypocrite may play his part notably upon such an occasion, as if he suspected the validity of the outward work, where there is not inward sanctity. Thus the Donatists in their first quarrel made head against Caecilius Bishop of Carthage, because they pretended that he was ordained by Traditores, by such as had delivered the Scriptures to Dioclesians bloudhounds, that they might burn them: So the Luciferians fell off from the unity of the Church, in opposition to Heretics, who returned again into the right way, but those censorious Pharisees would allow of nothing they did in their Priestly Function. And this was maintained sundry times by rugged irreconcilable natures; and revived again, if some say true, in the days of Wycliffe. The stone of offense at which they stumbled was, that the Church, as we observe it well, pronounceth after Christ, that Bishops and Priests receive the Holy Ghost in their ordination, but such as are spotted with grievous sins & heresies have quenched the Holy Ghost. Yea, but not that Holy Ghost which they received in their holy Orders. That is a grace conferred for the dispensation of divine mysteries, and no other. It is a grace whereby they are become Conduit-pipes of grace to others. It is not a grace whereby they save themselves, but whereby they save those whom they baptize, & comfort, and teach, and absolve; in a word, not the grace of an holy Life, but of an holy Calling. Be not therefore shaken with scruples and suspicions, what operation the Offices of the Church have, when Judas, and such alas as are very scandalous dispense them. The Carpenters may make an Ark for Noah, though themselves were drowned in the Flood: An Iron Seal can imprint a stamp as well as one of Gold. The Seed may come up, and do well, though the hand were leprous that sowed it. Be comforted therefore, that although such as Hophni and Phinehas are unworthy of their Ephod, that make the Offerings of the Lord to be abhorred, yet the High Priest Jesus is present, not for the workmans sake, but for the works sake, at those Ordinances which himself hath constituted.

I have now dispatched the two great Limbs of this Miracle, the distribution, and the sub-distribution, the Givers principal and less principal: I will touch upon the Receivers, and then no more. And first, Their posture, they sat down, is not put for a Cipher into this business, to portend nothing; neither did Christ use to command anything in vain, but in the verse before my Text he bids the Disciples make the men sit down, and they did so. And that did intimate a great branch of their Pastoral dignity, I think. To break the Loaves and Fishes among them, was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . to feed the Lambs, an act issuing from their power of order, but to make them sit down was 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and betokened their power of jurisdiction. And happy were they that being appointed by their Lord to look to good order, to make the men sit down, did light upon those that were so willing and ready to do as they were bidden, no replications, or non-conformity I warrant you among them all, but instantly they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties, Mar. vi. 40. And they that sat down with so much obedience to eat this bread, would have kneeled with no less obedience, if they had been appointed, to eat the bread of life. But wherefore did they take their places in ranks thus upon the grass? You cannot impute the Spirit of Prophesy unto them, that they could guess what would follow. Me thinks some Jesuit should say, that this is even the same, which they call by that inauspicious term, blind obedience. When a Novice surrenders up his judgment to the will of his Superior, and examines not the quality of the thing which is enjoined, but with undiscoursed allegiance stoops to the Authority of him that commands. If he be bidden to water a dead stake in a hedge, or set his shoulders to remove a Castle, or tell the number of the Stars, he undertakes it, obsequiousness hath devoured his judgment, and he controverts nothing that is commanded, though he sees no reason for it. The more Ideot he to extinguish the light which God hath given to his soul, and to follow frail men in their dark paths, who may lead him into precipices of confusion. For to pierce no farther into this mystery of iniquity, than into the instances I named even now. Shall any man be excused before God that spends his time in trifles, to no use? He that will require an account of idle words, will he not require it of idle and vain actions? Doubtless, he that allows a mortal man an absolute sovereignty over his understanding, to stoop to anything he bids him do without examination of the fact, puts him into that privilege which is due to God alone. Therefore these that sat down in my Text are not of that Livery with those blind obedients. They received a Precept in Christ's name, to whom they owed the Abnegation of their own Judgment, and they put themselves into that order which he appointed. They had seen the proof of his Power so often, that they durst not dis-believe, but it they waited patiently they should see the glory of God in his mighty works. Their eyes were fastened upon him, and though they saw nothing to feed so many ranks of men, yet now they were confident they should not be dismissed without a taste of his liberality. We furnish our Tables usually, and then sit down, but these did first sit down with nothing before them, and afterward Christ did furnish the Table.

O how the unbelieving Pharisees would have jeered them if they had sat down and got no sustenance as they expected. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , says Homer; it is an ignominious thing to wait long, and be sent away with nothing, but the hope of a good man is never fruitless, it never makes ashamed, for since these sat down with such patience and obsequiousness, they had as much as they would. As David says, The meek shall eat and be satisfied, they shall praise the Lord, Psal. xxii. 26. It is St. Hilaries conjecture, that this food which enlarged strangely first in Christ's hand, and then in the Disciples, multiplied the third time in the hands of all that received it. It is true which that Father says, that then as many as were present might discern the Miracle the better; and it holds with reason, that the bread should stretch out bigger, according as one man's appetite was sharper than another. I will not contend for this, that everyone in the ordinary throng should be so happy as to promote a miracle, For Jesus I know, and the Disciples I know, but who are ye? This I shall obtain without contention, that they had as much as they would. Look upon the number of the men, about five thousand, the Women and Children mentioned indefinitely as if they were numberless, and all these had refection to content them with that which one glutton would easily have devoured. O stupendous! the old scoff was that there were no Friars among them, there were of all Ages, Vigours, and Complexions, and yet no lack. Nay, says St. Austin, Panes sufficiunt, homines deficiunt; They gave over to eat before the bread gave over to increase; and as Pliny said of them that got much by Trajan, their own modesty circumscribed their desires, not his benignity, so these that sat down did leave to feed, before God did leave to give. The Wine which Christ supplied at Cana in Galilee it was not modicum, but enough to feast a Prince, Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy says the Apostle, 1 Tim. vi. 17. And though the quantity of his gift be ample, yet the quality is more than it, for it makes the appetite acquiesce and lie still that it asks no more. All that have store in abundance are not content with their share; all that are filled to the brim do not think it sufficient. But the condition of this meat which Christ blessed was, That they were all filled, and they had as much as they would. Therefore when you meet with such as are well pleased to have their honors stay at a growth, and to wax no higher; to have their riches hoopt within a moderate size, and to swell no bigger, you may say they have eat some of God Almighty's Loaf, they have as much as they would: But when you light upon such, (and they are not hard to find) whose ambition is pained like a woman in travel, till it bring forth a bigger fortune; who covet forty that it may beget an hundred, and drive on an hundred till it make a thousand, and so forth, you may say that these have licked of the Devils honey, and if they might have their own will they would burst their belly.

Now to conclude all. To say that this Wilderness-full of people had as much as they could eat out of two or three Omers of corn, out of a little that a poor Lad perhaps had gleaned, it is marvelous in our ears. Yet take all, and it goes much beyond this, for the Fragments which remained did fill twelve Baskets. Yea, says the