no small glory to conceal glory. Thy first public miracle graceth a marriage. It is an ancient and laudable institution, that the rites of matrimony should not want a solemn celebration. When are feasts in season, if not at the recovery of our lost rib; if not at this main change of our estate, wherein the joy of obtaining meets with the hope of further comforts? The Son of the virgin, and the mother of that Son, are both at a wedding. It was in all likelihood some of their kindred, to whose nuptial feast they were invited so far; yet was it more the honour of the act than of the person that Christ intended. He, that made the first marriage in Paradise, bestows his first miracle upon a Galilean marriage. He, that was the author of matrimony, and sanctified it, doth, by his holy presence, honour the resemblance of his eternal union with his church. How boldly may we spit in the faces of all the impure adversaries of wedlock, when the Son of God pleases to honour it!

The glorious Bridegroom of the church knew well, how ready men would be to place shame even in the most lawful conjunctions; and therefore his first work shall be to countenance his own ordinance. Happy is that wedding where Christ is a guest! O Saviour, those that marry in thee, cannot marry without thee. There is no holy marriage whereat thou art not, however invisible, yet truly present by thy Spirit, by thy gracious benediction. Thou makest marriages in heaven, thou blessest them from heaven. O thou that hast betrothed us to thyself in truth and righteousness, do thou consummate that happy marriage of ours in the highest heavens! It was no rich or sumptuous bridal to which Christ, with his mother and disciples, vouchsafed to come from the farther parts of Galilee. I find him not at the magnificent feasts or triumphs of the great. The proud pomp of the world did not agree with the state of a servant. This poor needy bridegroom wants drink for his guests. The blessed virgin, though a stranger to the house, out of a cha

ritable compassion, and a friendly desire to maintain the decency of a hospitable entertainment, inquires into the wants of her host, pities them, bemoans them, where there was power of redress. "When the wine failed, the mother of Jesus said unto him, They have no wine." How well doth it beseem the eyes of piety and christian love, to look into the necessities of others! She that conceived the God of mercies both in her heart and in her womb, doth not fix her eyes upon her own teacher, but searcheth into the penury of a poor Israelite, and feels those wants whereof he complains not. They are made for themselves, whose thoughts are only taken up with their own store or indigence.

There was wine enough for a meal, though not for a feast; and if there were not wine enough, there was enough of water: yet the holy virgin complains of the want of wine, and is troubled with the very lack of superfluity. The bounty of our God reaches not to our life only, but to our contentment: neither hath he thought good to allow us only the bread of sufficiency, but sometimes of pleasure. One while that is but necessary, which some other time were superfluous. It is a scrupulous injustice to scant ourselves, where God hath been liberal.

To whom should we complain of any want, but to the Maker and Giver of all things? The blessed virgin knew to whom she sued: she had good reason to know the divine nature and power of her Son. Perhaps the bridegroom was not so needy, but, if not by his purse, yet by his credit, he might have supplied that want; or it were hard, if some of the neighbour guests, had they been duly solicited, might not have furnished him with so much wine as must suffice for the last service of a dinner. But blessed Mary knew a nearer way she did not think best to lade at the shallow channel, but runs rather to the well-head, where she may dip and fill the firkins at once with ease. It may be, she saw, that the train of Christ,

which, unbidden, followed unto that feast, and unexpectedly added to the number of the guests, might help forward that defect, and therefore she justly solicits her son Jesus for a supply. Whether we want bread, or water, or wine, necessaries or comforts, whither should we run, O Saviour, but to that infinite munificence of thine, which neither denieth nor upbraideth any thing? we cannot want, we cannot abound, but from thee. Give us what thou wilt, so thou give us contentment with what thou givest.

But what is this I hear? a sharp answer to the suit of a mother: "O woman, what have I to do with thee?" He whose sweet mildness and mercy never sent away any suppliant discontented, doth he only frown upon her that bare him? he that commands us to honour father and mother, doth he disdain her whose flesh he took? God forbid: Love and duty doth not exempt parents from due admonition. She solicited Christ as a mother, he answers her as a woman. If she were the mother of his flesh, his Deity was eternal. She might not so remember herself to be a mother, that she should forget she was a woman; nor so look upon him as a son, that she should not regard him as a God. He was so obedient to her as a mother, that withal she must obey him as her God. That part which he took from her shall observe her; she must observe that nature which came from above, and made her both a woman and a mother. Matter of miracle concerned the Godhead only; supernatural things were above the sphere of fleshly relation. If now the blessed virgin will be prescribing either time or form unto divine acts, “O woman, what have I to do with thee? my hour is not In all bodily actions his style was, "O mother:" in spiritual and heavenly, "O woman.” Neither is it for us in the holy affairs of God to know any faces; yea, "If we have known Christ heretofore according to the flesh, henceforth know we him so no more."

come."

O blessed virgin, if in that heavenly glory wherein thou art, thou canst take notice of these earthly things, with what indignation dost thou look upon the presumptuous superstition of vain men, whose suits make thee more than a solicitor of divine favours! thy humanity is not lost in thy motherhood, nor in thy glory: the respects of nature reach not so high as heaven. It is far from thee to abide that honour which is stolen from thy Redeemer.

There is a marriage whereto we are invited, yea wherein we are already interested, not as the guests only, but as the bride, in which there shall be no want of the wine of gladness. It is marvel, if in these earthly banquets there be not some lack. "In thy presence, O Saviour, there is fulness of joy, and at thy right-hand are pleasures for evermore. Blessed are they that are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb.

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Even in that rough answer doth the blessed virgin descry cause of hope. If this hour were not yet come, it was therefore coming: when the expectation of the guests, and the necessity of the occasion, had made fit room for the miracle, it shall come forth and challenge their wonder. Faithfully, therefore, and observantly, doth she turn her speech from her son. to the waiters; Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it." How well doth it beseem the mother of Christ to agree with his Father in heaven, whose voice from heaven said, "This is my well-beloved Son, hear him!" She that said of herself, "Be it unto me according to thy word," says unto others, "Whatsoever he saith to you, do it." This is the way to have miracles wrought in us, obedience to his word. The power of Christ did not stand upon their officiousness: he could have wrought wonders in spite of them: but their perverse refusal of his commands might have made them incapable of the favour of a miraculous action. He that can, when he will, convince the obstinate, will not grace the disobedient. He that could work without us, or against us, will not work for us, but by us.

This very poor house was furnished with many and large vessels for outward purification; as if sin had dwelt upon the skin, that superstitious people sought holiness in frequent washings. Even this rinsing fouled them with the uncleanness of a traditional willworship. It is the soul which needs scouring; and nothing can wash that but the blood which they desperately wished upon themselves and their children, for guilt, not for expiation. "Purge thou us, O Lord, with hyssop, and we shall be clean; wash us, and we shall be whiter than snow."

The waiters could not but think strange of so unseasonable a command, "Fill the water-pots." It is wine that we want; what do we go to fetch water! doth this holy man mean thus to quench our feast, and cool our stomachs? if there be no remedy, we could have sought this supply unbidden. Yet so far hath the charge of Christ's mother prevailed, that, instead of carrying flagons of wine to the table, they go to fetch pails-full of water from the cisterns. It is no pleading of unlikelihoods against the command of an Almighty power.

He, that could have created wine immediately in those vessels, will rather turn water into wine. In all the course of his miracles, I do never find him making aught of nothing; all his great works are grounded upon former existences. He multiplied the bread, he changed the water, he restored the withered limbs, he raised the dead, and still wrought upon that which was, and did not make that which was not. What doth he in the ordinary way of nature, but turn the watery juice that arises up from the root into wine? he will only do this now suddenly, and at once, which he doth usually by sensible degrees. It is ever duly observed by the Son of God, not to do more miracle than he needs.

How liberal are the provisions of Christ! if he had turned but one of these vessels, it had been a just proof of his power, and perhaps that quantity had