which he did immediately; and the blind man saw, and the dumb spake, so much to the amazement of the people, that they ran in so prodigious companies after him, and so scandalized the Pharisees, who thought that by means of this prophet their reputation would be lessened, and their schools empty, that first a rumour was scattered up and down, from an uncertain principle, but communicated with tumult and apparent noises, that Jesus was beside himself. Upon which rumour his friends and kindred came together to see, and to make provisions accordingly; and the holy virginmother came herself, but without any apprehensions of any such horrid accident. The words and things she had from the beginning laid up in her heart, would furnish her with principles exclusive of all apparitions of such fancies: but she came to see what that persecution was, which, under that colour, it was likely the Pharisees might com

mence.

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12. When the mother of Jesus and his kindred came, they found him in a house encircled with people full of wonder and admiration. And there the holy virgin-mother might hear part of her own prophecy verified, That the generations of the earth should call her blessed for a woman worshipping Jesus cried out, Blessed is the womb that bare thee, and the paps that gave thee suck.' To this Jesus replied, not denying her to be highly blessed who had received the honour of being the mother of the Messias, but advancing the dignities of spiritual excellencies far above this greatest temporal honour in the world; 'Yea, rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and do it.' For in respect of the issues of spiritual perfections

and their proportionable benedictions, all immunities and temporal honours are empty and hollow blessings; and all relations of kindred disband and empty themselves into the great channels and floods of divinity.

13. For when Jesus being in the house, they told him, his mother and his brethren staid for him without,' he told them those relations were less than the ties of duty and religion. For those dear names of mother and brethren, which are hallowed by the laws of God and the endearments of nature, are made far more sacred when a spiritual cognation does supervene, when the relations are subjected in persons religious and holy: but if they be abstract and separate, the conjunction of persons in spiritual bands, in the same faith, and the same hope, and the union of them in the same mystical head, is an adunation nearer to identity than those distances between parents and children, which are only cemented by the actions of nature, as it is of distinct consideration from the spirit. For Jesus, pointing to his disciples, said, 'Behold my mother and my brethren; for whosoever doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.'

14. But the Pharisees, upon the occasion of the miracles, renewed the old quarrel: 'He casteth out devils by Beelzebub. Which senseless and illiterate objection Christ having confuted, charged them highly upon the guilt of an unpardonable crime; telling them that the so charging those actions of his, done in the virtue of the divine Spirit, is a sin against the Holy Ghost: and however they might be bold with the Son of Man, and prevarications against his words, or injuries to his

person might, upon repentance and baptism, find a pardon; yet it was a matter of greater consideration to sin against the Holy Ghost; that would find no pardon here nor hereafter. But taking occasion upon this discourse, he, by an ingenious and mysterious parable, gives the world great caution of recidivation and backsliding after repentance. For if the devil returns into an house once swept and garnished, he bringeth seven spirits more impure than himself; and the last estate of that man is worse than the first.'

15. After this, Jesus went from the house of the Pharisee, and coming to the sea of Tiberias or Gennesaret, (for it was called the sea of Tiberias from a town on the banks of the lake,) taught the people upon the shore, himself sitting in the ship. But he taught them by parables, under which were hid mysterious senses, which shined through their veil, like a bright sun through an eye closed with a thin eyelid; it being light enough to show their infidelity, but not to dispel those thick Egyptian darknesses which they had contracted by their habitual indispositions and pertinacious aversations. By the parable of the sower scattering his seed by the way-side,' and 'some on stony, some on thorny, some on good ground,' he intimated the several capacities or indispositions of men's hearts; the carelessness of some, the frowardness and levity of others, the easiness and softness of a third, and how they are spoiled with worldliness and cares, and how many ways there are to miscarry; and that but one sort of men receive the word, and bring forth the fruits of a holy life. By the parable of tares permitted to grow amongst the wheat, he intimated the toleration of dissenting opinions

not destructive of piety or civil societies. By the three parables of the seed growing insensibly, of the grain of mustard-seed swelling up to a tree, of a little leven qualifying the whole lump, he signified the increment of the gospel, and the blessings upon the apostolical sermons.

16. Which parables when he had privately to his apostles rendered into their proper senses, he added to them two parables concerning the dignity of the gospel; comparing it to 'treasure hid in a field,' and a jewel of great price,' for the purchase of which every good merchant must quit all that he hath rather than miss it: telling them withal, that however purity and spiritual perfections were intended by the gospel, yet it would not be acquired by every person; but the public professors of Christianity should be a mixed multitude, ' like a net enclosing fishes good and bad.' After which discourses he retired from the sea-side, and went to his own city of Nazareth; where he preached so excellently upon certain words of the prophet Isaiah,' that all the people wondered at the wisdom which he expressed in his divine discourses. But the men of Nazareth did not do honour to the prophet, that was their countryman, because they knew him in all the disadvantages of youth, and kindred, and trade, and poverty; still retaining in their minds the infirmities and humilities of his first years, and keeping the same apprehensions of him, a man, a glorious prophet, which they had to him a child in the shop of a carpenter. But when Jesus, in his sermon, had reproved their infidelity, at which he wondered, and therefore did but few mi

VOL. III.

1 Isaiah, lxi. 1.

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18 THE SECOND YEAR OF JESUS'S PREACHING.

racles there in respect of what he had done at Capernaum, and intimated the prelation of that city before Nazareth, they thrust him out of the city, and led him to the brow of the hill on which the city was built,' intending to throw him down headlong.' But his work was not yet finished, therefore he, passing through the midst of them, went his way.'

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17. Jesus therefore, departing from Nazareth, went up and down to all the towns and castles of Galilee, attended by his disciples, and certain women out of whom he had cast unclean spirits; such as were Mary Magdalene; Johanna, wife to Chuza, Herod's steward; Susanna, and some others, who did for him offices of provision, and 'ministered to him out of their own substance,' and became part of that holy college which about this time began to be full; because now the apostles were returned from their preaching, full of joy that the devils were made subject to the word of their mouth, and the empire of their prayers, and invocation of the holy name of Jesus. But their master gave them a lenitive to assuage the tumour and excrescency, intimating that such privileges are not solid foundations of a holy joy, but so far as they co-operate toward the great end of God's glory and their own salvation; to which when they are consigned, and 'their names written in heaven,' in the book of election and registers of predestination, then their joy is reasonable, holy, true, and perpetual.'

18. But when Herod had heard these things of Jesus, presently his apprehensions were such as derived from his guilt: he thought it was John the

' Vide Discourse of the Certainty of Salvation, Num. 3.